When the space shuttle Challenger exploded just over a minute after its launch in 1986, it shattered the dreams of millions of people who watched the tragedy unfold live on television. It also ended up exposing the weaknesses of a space program that had been revered by many.
In “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster at the Edge of Space,” Adam Higginbotham provides the most definitive account of the explosion that claimed the lives of the seven-person crew. It also meticulously explores the mistakes and negligence that allowed the tragedy to occur.
Set between two other tragedies to hit NASA – the Apollo launch pad fire in 1967, which killed three astronauts, and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed seven – Higginbotham’s book traces the history of the space shuttle program. country’s space shuttles that led to the Challenger explosion.
Higginbotham manages to temper his account of the excitement that the space shuttle program generated—recounting how “everyday life seemed to come to a standstill” during the launch of the space shuttle Columbia in 1981—with the warning signs of technical failures that were overlooked or completely ignored. . the years.
In clear, accessible language, Higginbotham explains the mechanics of the space shuttle and its problems without sacrificing the pace that moves readers forward. The pace is so fast that readers will be surprised when they realize that the vivid account of the Challenger’s launch does not occur until well past the halfway point of the book.
Higginbotham provides an equally dramatic narrative of the aftermath of the space shuttle crash, from the search for the wreckage and the astronaut’s remains to the investigation and hearings into the disaster.
The book presents a compelling and comprehensive story of the disaster that exposed, as Higginbotham writes, how “the nation’s smartest minds unwittingly sent seven men and women to their deaths.”
___
AP Book Reviews:
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
