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A review by nothingforpomegranted
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
4.25
Higginbotham’s account of the Challenger explosion and the personal stories of the astronauts aboard the Shuttle was informative and heartbreaking. He struck an impressive balance between sharing technical information and cultivating the personal connections.
The book begins with the live reporting of the launch and explosion of the Challenger before jumping back in time to the explosion of Apollo during a pre-launch test in 1967. From there, Higginbotham explains the history of space travel, the boredom of American civilians, and the origins of the Space Shuttle program, as well as details of spacecraft machinery and engineering, specifically those aspects that failed in the Challenger launch.
It was painful and chilling to read about failure after failure, error after error, bad decision after bad decision. The imagery of this book was profound, as Higginbotham described the structure of the O-rings, the arrangement of the seats, the icicles forming out the outside of the Shuttle. The pressure put on NASA and thusly on Morton Thiokol to launch was repulsive and resonant of so many analyses of acceptable risk that politicians and organizations have to engage in now, and it is harrowing to accept that so many factors contribute to a decision, beyond the risk to human life.
I think Higginbotham did an excellent job of summarizing the events and the decisions, including where things went wrong, without wholly villainizing those who made those choices. He described the human elements of despair and pain, which felt especially significant because he built up the characters of the astronauts and their families throughout the book. I was also impressed with the way that he incorporated the language of Ronald Reagan and other political pundits throughout the development of the space programs and the devastation of this crash.
Some of the technical detail was challenging for me to follow, and there were points where I felt that the narrative was a bit disorganized, poorly integrating the information. I especially found it difficult to keep track of some of the families. In addition, there were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors in this copy, which irritated me.
The book begins with the live reporting of the launch and explosion of the Challenger before jumping back in time to the explosion of Apollo during a pre-launch test in 1967. From there, Higginbotham explains the history of space travel, the boredom of American civilians, and the origins of the Space Shuttle program, as well as details of spacecraft machinery and engineering, specifically those aspects that failed in the Challenger launch.
It was painful and chilling to read about failure after failure, error after error, bad decision after bad decision. The imagery of this book was profound, as Higginbotham described the structure of the O-rings, the arrangement of the seats, the icicles forming out the outside of the Shuttle. The pressure put on NASA and thusly on Morton Thiokol to launch was repulsive and resonant of so many analyses of acceptable risk that politicians and organizations have to engage in now, and it is harrowing to accept that so many factors contribute to a decision, beyond the risk to human life.
I think Higginbotham did an excellent job of summarizing the events and the decisions, including where things went wrong, without wholly villainizing those who made those choices. He described the human elements of despair and pain, which felt especially significant because he built up the characters of the astronauts and their families throughout the book. I was also impressed with the way that he incorporated the language of Ronald Reagan and other political pundits throughout the development of the space programs and the devastation of this crash.
Some of the technical detail was challenging for me to follow, and there were points where I felt that the narrative was a bit disorganized, poorly integrating the information. I especially found it difficult to keep track of some of the families. In addition, there were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors in this copy, which irritated me.