Maddy’s Reviews > Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space > Status Update

So harrowing and so sad. I can't imagine seeing this televised when it happened. So gut-wrenching. It's also quite clear which astronaut families decline to share their perspectives, which is both understandable but also makes me sad that their full stories are not told. I don't blame them for hiding from the press, but it makes it seem as if their crew member didn't have loved ones as well. Or maybe I'm crazy.

Introduced to Christa and shown the process of how she applied and eventually "won" her seat. Walking through an abort to orbit and, damn, I've got chills. Hindsight makes this closer to a suspenseful horror book, I swear.

Things are building towards the mission, we're getting a deeper background on the crew. Challenger was deeply shameful for NASA so it's hard to come by a comprehensive story - I'd only ever read one from the Thiokol side - so this is a great history deep dive.

No one ever wants to listen to the engineers. It's interesting hearing more of the Marshall side - the McDonald book was mostly Thiokol. It's very spooky reading all of this... like watching a car crash and you can't do anything to stop it.

I forgot how much I love space and NASA and the Shuttle (especially Discovery). I think not ending up at JPL, or even just NASA, led to me developing a protective indifference of sorts. Not sure I ever properly mourned that. Also, life is stressful and hard and I often find it hard to indulge in "dreamer interests" like this. Now's my chance for redemption.

The early achievements of spaceflight are bittersweet. They're quite exciting and incredible feats of science and engineering. They cut out women and non-Whites, using them as pawns to gain public favor when convenient and then denying them access to "the club". It's disgusting to read what some of these big names said about these applicants from marginalized communities. I'm glad Lovell has always been my favorite.

I forgot how captivating space history books are. Finally getting to this book... Only been about a year since meeting Adam Higginbotham at the Cosmos Club, so that's not too long of a wait. The story of Apollo 1 always gives me chills. Also, Higginbotham does such an incredible job compiling sources into a compelling, human story. I will always wish I could have experienced the dawn of the space age as a young boy.