A Challenging Read

For my generation, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger was a defining event -- an "everybody remembers where they were" moment that looms large in memory to this day. For myself, always a fanboy for crewed space travel, it occupies an especially large mental space. So when I heard about a recent book on the tragedy by author Adam Higginbotham, I was curious to check it out.

Higginbotham's book is called Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, and it is an expansive look at the explosion -- with a lengthy examination of events both preceding and following. While most people have at least heard of the "O-rings" that were ultimately found to be the culprit (and I, in my fascination, had previously read a good deal more than that), I nonetheless found the book to be a good deal more informative and revealing than that.

This book demonstrates just how avoidable this "accident" really was. It paints a crystal clear picture of the state of NASA and its contractors during the creation of the Space Shuttle, and the first five years of its operation (prior to the Challenger disaster): it's the story of a government agency much like any other less conspicuous agency, struggling with a lack funding and impossible mandates, fighting to achieve just to ensure its own survival.

It's also a broad cautionary tale about the dangers of believing in one's own hype. Though the book makes a point to remind readers of the deaths (and near-deaths) during the Apollo moon program, it also shows how those events were not as indelible as you might think in the minds of new bean counters who took charge of the space program in the interrim. (It also suggests that NASA ultimately did not learn enough long-lasting lessons here, with part of the final chapter turning to the breakup of the Space Shuttle Columbia, and pointing out the parallels precipitating that tragedy.)

A major strength of Higginbotham's writing is that the focus is equally on the events themselves and on the people at the center of the story. Without feeling like he's angling for a Hollywood big screen adaptation, he unfolds the story much like a movie, making central characters of the engineers who foresaw tragedy, the executives who ignored the warnings... and, of course, each of the seven astronauts who was killed in the disaster. Part of what made Challenger such a massive story in the American consciousness was the death of teacher Christa McAuliffe. But she was one of seven astronauts killed in the disaster, and this book gives equal time and background to all of them -- and to the people who might have saved their lives.

I will say the book is a touch overwritten at times. Higginbotham does use more than the usual number of $5 words, which sometimes undermines his presumed thesis of making these events more simple and accessible to his audience. This is probably a book best consumed on an e-reader, where you can tap for a quick dictionary definition of the rare and unfamiliar words that pop up a few times every chapter. (But hey -- you're learning more than history!)

Aside from those occasional bumps in the road, though, I found this book to be engrossing and illuminating. It will tell you things you didn't know. More importantly, it will humanize the story -- something I think is welcome all these years later, as Challenger has passed into American mythology. I give Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space a B+.