On January 28th, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle failed
in its mission to bring astronauts into space safely.
The author Hugh Harris, who was present, reconstructs what
went wrong, and succeeds in making this a very human story.
CHALLENGER - AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY is a short book with
several excellent photos, including the icicles dangling
from the rocket on the morning of her launch. Troughs of
water under the launch pad should absorb the sound waves,
to stop them reflecting onto the ship; these troughs with
added antifreeze had all frozen and had to be broken loose,
emptied and refilled with stronger antifreeze. These
scenes made me think that nobody sane would start a risky
journey in a car on a day like that one.
Looking from the perspective of NASA's news reporter Hugh
Harris, all was going well. Every word spoken by the brave
astronauts, which included a civilian schoolteacher, was
relayed to flight control. Launch seemed to go well, but a
minute and thirteen seconds later Challenger exploded. The
shock among watchers was extreme, and after some seconds
professionalism took over, as Harris puts it. All notes
taken were impounded in case they might shed light on the
cause of the disaster.
President Reagan was told and immediately postponed his
State of the Union Address. Vice President George Bush was
aboard Air Force One when it touched down at the launch
base at 5:30 PM. Former astronaut John Glenn was one of
the senators aboard Air Force One. Their concern was to meet
the families.
An investigative committee, chosen by Reagan and independent
of NASA, was assembled. It is doubtful that such powerful
names have ever been employed on one project; Richard
Feynman, Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, Chuck Yeager,
are the best known to the public. Reporter Jay Barbree got
straight to work asking his sources for information and
quickly found that analysis of video tapes showed the
failure point. Gaining confirmation, he broke the news on
TV. Between the efforts of the committee and the press, the
engineering problem, parts that could not handle the extreme
cold, became so well known that it is now taught in many
school over the world. Sound advice was ignored. The rest of
the book looks at the recovery of the wreck, engineering
processes and finally, the next staffed space launch, three
years later.
Harris reminds us of the many benefits of the space
programme, from satellites for weather forecasting and
telecommunications, to biomonitoring and new materials. The
International Space Station is one of humankind's greatest
achievements. This book will interest those starting to
study engineering or aircraft design, and media studies,
for it is neither so simply written as to be for the general
reader nor so densely technical as to be only for the
scientist. Anyone wishing to analyse that brief period in
history will also find it fascinating. I would point out
that the whole world was watching that day. This book may be
called CHALLENGER - AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY but it was actually
a global tragedy, one which has not been forgotten.
On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger launched
from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Seventy-three
seconds after launch, the fiery breach of a solid motor
joint caused a rupture of the propellant tanks, and a
stunned nation watched as flames engulfed the craft, killing
all seven crew members on board. It was Hugh Harris, “the
voice of launch control,” whom audiences across the country
heard counting down to lift-off on that fateful day.
With over fifty years of experience with NASA’s missions,
Harris presents the story of the Challenger tragedy as only
an insider can. With by-the-second accounts of the
spacecraft’s launch and a comprehensive overview of the
ensuing investigation, Harris gives readers a
behind-the-scenes look at the devastating accident that
grounded the shuttle fleet for over two years. This book
tells the whole story of the Challenger’s tragic legacy.
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