Truly a devastating and captivating read. I really didn’t know anything about the Challenger disaster (other than that it happened), and I thought this did a great job of introducing background, covering the sweeping issues plaguing NASA and its partners, and compassionately highlighting the astronauts, families, and staff that made up this story. I was worried it would get a bit to sciencey (I do walk away from this knowing a lot about o-rings) but this was a deeply human story. Higginbotham followed natural threads to help make sense of the complex and often chaotic moving pieces that were happening all at once, and in the end I felt like I knew each person, which made the inevitable conclusion all the more harrowing. The journalism felt respectful and thorough, it made me think a lot about how a toxic mix of capitalism, arrogance, and bureaucracy can turn the romantic and lofty aspirations of space exploration into a machine that just eats and spits people out. I couldn’t put this book down and would definitely recommend for an engaging piece of nonfiction!