Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space | 
I found 4 cool books at the shop yesterday. The 1st was a biography of Rasputin. The 2nd was called How the Irish Saved Civilization: it was about how European art was preserved in Ireland during the Dark Ages. The 3rd was historical fiction called The Rebels of Ireland, but it was #2 in its series. The 4th was the one I ended up buying. It‘s an account of the Challenger disaster by Adam Higginbotham. His book on Chernobyl is great.
This is more than just about the Challenger but rather a comprehensive look at NASA 🚀🧑🚀👩🚀
pickThe author goes into great detail about the history of NASA, government contractors, and astronauts. While the book is about the Challenger you learn a lot about the workings of getting all space shuttles into orbit. Once again we find out that greed and not listening to the experts is the thing that will doom a project every time. What a tragedy. Great work writing a riveting book that was never a slog to get through despite all the detail.
pickProbably if you are an American of a certain age you will have a Vivid memory of the day the Challenger exploded killing all 7 aboard. This book takes you through a history at NASA from the first Apollo to that awful day. He walks you through the science and the politics, the human error and hubris that lead to the explosion and what could have been done differently. Incredibly well researched and with easy to follow language and narrative.
pick#Read2025
I finished this last week but I‘m behind in reviews. Read for #MonthlyNonFiction2025 it was also one of my April #Roll100 picks (#16 Any Non-Fiction). It‘s an interesting juxtaposition to read this book while watching random famous people try to pass themselves off as astronauts & having Nancy Drew solve a mystery with exploding oranges at Cape Canaveral. I remember being in class (college) in the morning when they wheeled in a tv & ⬇️
Starting this one today feels serendipitous after the highly publicized "flight" this week. I have so many thoughts and feelings.
I was in the first grade when the Challenger tragedy happened and I still remember the shock of it all. I have heard good things about the this one and think it is a perfect time to read it.
My #Chatterday Saturday vibe is recovery. Another insane week at work with 2 Hilo trips & big meetings & next week is the same, so trying to catch up with myself, reading (this one is due back in 2 days) & snail mail for #LitsyLove & other returns. Also I need to post some reviews & my delinquent #5JoysFriday 💛 from yesterday as I crashed as soon as I got home from the airport last night. 😵💫😴
Hope you all are having a good weekend! 🤗
pickThis book was respectful, beautifully written, exhaustively researched storytelling at its finest. Even though I knew how things were going to end up, this was still a nail-biter. I caught myself thinking, wow, I really really really hope they call off this launch… It might not seem like a glowing recommendation to say, “Read this! It gave me nightmares!” but it really is one of the best nonfiction books I‘ve ever read.
pickPowerful and compelling. I‘ve seen a few reviews complaining that it felt like too much NASA history rather than focusing only on the Challenger itself, but I truly believe the historical context is necessary to explain some decision-making down the line that seems inexplicable on its own. There was a lot I didn‘t know about the Rogers Commission findings (I was only 10, ok) and I knew nothing about Thiokol‘s warnings about the O-rings. ✨5 stars✨
In a book with so many sad, heartbreaking moments, this sentence has to be the saddest.
“The Columbia Accident Investigation Board delivered its report on August 26, 2003, and concluded that many of the lessons of the Challenger disaster had gone unheeded.”
pickThis an exceptionally deep dive into the NASA shuttle program, culminating in the devastating - and tragically preventable - explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. Gives me a new respect for the bravery of the astronauts. But it was a great disappointment to learn how NASA was run and the disservice done in failing to protect the lives of those willing to risk their lives to venture into space.
pickThis was an incredibly thorough look at what led up to the Challenger space shuttle disaster. The author starts all the way back in the beginning of the space race to show how systemic failures, political maneuvers, and human hubris, led to the dangers being ignored. Some of the science/engineering vocabulary was a bit beyond me. But I really appreciated how much he humanized the people involved, especially the astronauts and their families.
I‘m not finished with this book yet, but I‘m still counting in as my favorite book of the month. Incredible storytelling; he expertly combines the human side of things with the technical details that I‘m so interested in.
Best laid plans …
My holds came in on Challenger and Intermezzo, so I‘m bumping them ahead of my bookspin picks and reading them next.
pickThis was an emotional read for me! I was in 4th grade in Florida when it happened. My class stepped outside to watch so I saw the explosion live in the sky. And in hindsight there were so many reasons to not launch that day 😔 The story was well told by the author.
By the time the design was complete...engineers... still believed they were employing a tried-and-tested joint for their new rocket: they had avoided any potentially dangerous innovation. But this was a convenient delusion.... in creating a man-rated, fail-safe joint they had also modified it so extensively that what they produced was, in effect, a quite new and experimental design.
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Cue the ominous soundtrack...
"Why are you interrupting my bird watching?"
Current library reads with one I just completed (The Mighty Red).
Day 11 of #12Booksof2024 is my favorite nonfiction read of the year
@Andrew65
....the exercises [water survival drills] were conducted under the gaze of dozens of reporters and cameramen...
By now, each of the women understood that the novelty of being America's first female astronauts made them a focus of attention, but their patience was already fraying....
when, as she was being winched aloft by a helicopter, a photographer asked Sally Ride to make a "happy face" for the cameras, she simply yelled, "No!"
CHALLENGER is riveting. Wrenching. Heartbreaking. And brilliant.
pickI had little background knowledge of the Challenger disaster and I‘m on a roll with space in books and tv so I thought I‘d dive into the background of the space shuttle. What a thorough read on the technical aspects of the vehicle, the political dynamics, and the big players of NASA this was! But Higginbotham dedicates most of the book to the profiles of the astronauts who were aboard the shuttle. I can see why this has many positive reviews.
July made for some very difficult decisions in the NONFICTION bracket for #2024ReadingBrackets. After much deliberation, the tagged book advanced to the quarterfinals.
pickVery informative read about the Challenger disaster and the culture at NASA that led to the fateful and ultimately tragic decision to launch despite indications of problems with the O-rings. It‘s pretty technical, especially in the first half. Thankfully I have an aerospace engineer on speed dial (my son) who could explain some of the more complex sections. Highly recommend, even if you don‘t have your own personal rocket scientist. 😀
pickFinished this chunkster of an audiobook today. (Took from Virginia to Tennessee and then from Virginia to West Virginia.) My husband and I both really enjoyed it, although it almost went too much in depth. I did appreciate that it focused on all the astronauts not just McAuliffe.
pickThe Challenger explosion is the first major event of my life that I indelibly remember. I was 9. So I was very interested in this book and it is absolutely phenomenal. Higginbotham first goes back in NASA history and sets the stage for both the disaster and other previous disasters that happened. By the time he is approaching launch, I was saying, “No!” out loud to the audiobook. It‘s that good.
