Challenger

A little light reading to distract me on the eve of US Election Day 2024 (JK). There's a lot of background provided, including technical details that I skimmed through, but it's all critical in understanding the tragedy of the Challenger explosion. The seven doomed crew members are portrayed in heartbreaking depth. By the time Higginbotham finally gets to the fateful January 1986 day, I couldn't help wishing that a magical time machine would appear and somehow change the image that is forever seared in my brain of the two wonky-looking vapor trails and the disembodied voice saying, “obviously a major malfunction.”

I knew that there was some problem with the O-rings that was recognized by the engineers but discounted by NASA and Company higher-ups. Until I read this book, I didn't realize that the combination of budget cuts, pressure to increase the shuttle program's frequency, diffusion of responsibility and good old hubris rendered the tragedy entirely preventable. After the scorching Rogers Commission report, everyone vowed to do better next time. Which was fine until the 2003 Columbia disaster, the deadly Boeing 737 jet crashes of 2018/19 and narrowly avoided 2024 catastrophes, etc., etc.