Challenger

“Deftly balances a detailed accounting of what led to the disaster with a celebration of the engineers and astronauts who participated in the mission. The most painful passages here show how political maneuvering and cost cutting kneecapped the shuttle program from the very start… . The bureaucratic negligence and ineptitude stands in sharp contrast to the excellence of the crew members.” –The New Yorker“Stunning … Challenger is a remarkable book. It manages to be a whodunit that stretches hundreds of pages, a heart-pounding thriller even though readers already know the ending. The passion and ideals at the heart of human spaceflight come through, which only adds to the tragedy of understanding how many chances there were to save the astronauts aboard. Our faith in the systems that run our world is really faith in our fellow man–a chilling reality to remember.” –The Atlantic“Hefty, compelling, and propulsive, Challenger overflows with revelatory details… . Higginbotham is a master chronicler of disasters, demonstrating an unflinching ability to pierce through politics, power, and bureaucracies with laser-sharp focus.” –BookPage (starred review)“Higginbotham is an intrepid journalist and skillful storyteller who takes care to humanize the dozens of major and minor players involved in NASA’s many successful, and occasionally catastrophic, space missions… . For cynical Americans, disaster buffs, and engineers, Challenger will be a quick, devastating read. In Higginbotham’s deft hands, the human element–sometimes heroic, sometimes cloaked in doublespeak and bluster–shines through the many technical aspects of this story, a constant reminder that every decision was made by people weighing risks versus expediency, their minds distorted by power, money, politics, and yes-men. It’s a universal story that transcends time.” –New York Times“In clear and accessible language, Higginbotham explains the mechanics of the shuttle and its problems without sacrificing any of the pace that carries readers forward… . The book delivers a compelling, comprehensive history of the disaster that exposed, as Higginbotham writes, how ‘the nation’s smartest minds had unwittingly sent seven men and women to their deaths.’” –Associated Press“Superb … In the hands of Higginbotham, the narrative comes to life in a fresh telling fueled by meticulous detail and exacting prose. While familiar, the story is rendered dreamlike so that readers can’t help but hope, as it unfolds page by page, that somehow the outcome this time will be different… . A compelling and exhaustively researched chronicle of the calamity that traces its full arc–the evolution of the enabling culture that allowed it, the terrible day itself, and its enduring legacy.” –Washington Post“Dramatic … Mr. Higginbotham’s prose grows taut as the Challenger liftoff approaches… . [A] moving narrative.” –Wall Street Journal“Higginbotham’s comprehensive and affecting recounting and explanation illuminates a tragedy that was entirely preventable.” –Booklist (starred review)“A deeply researched, fluently written study in miscommunication, hubris, and technological overreach.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred)“Gripping history … Higginbotham’s colorful narrative contrasts the eager idealism of Challenger’s crew, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, with the arrogance of NASA honchos who dismissed warnings and casually gambled with the astronauts’ lives. His account of the engineering issues is lucid and meticulous, and his evocative prose conveys both the extraordinary achievement of rocket scientists in harnessing colossal energies with delicate mechanisms and the sudden cataclysms that erupt when the machinery fails. The result is a beguiling saga of the peril and promise of spaceflight.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Adam Higginbotham has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, and Smithsonian. He is the author of Midnight in Chernobyl, which was the winner of the William E. Colby Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. He lives with his family in New York City.