An account of the worst disaster in the twenty-five-year history of United States space exploration, the loss of the shuttlecraft Challenger and its seven member crew.
Amazon Review by Hemorrhoid's Meow
1.0 out of 5 stars Mistakes, More Mistakes, And Even More Mistakes
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2013
On page two the mistakes began and didn't end there sadly.
Page 2: The author misidentifies NASA as the National Air and Space Agency. NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Page 23: The author states the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) exploded causing Challenger to disintegrate. The SRBs did not explode. As the External Fuel Tank exploded, the blast sent the SRBs on a wild, and un-predicatable flight path. They were destroyed by the Range Safety Officer so they would not stray into a populated area.
Page 26: The author misidentifies the date of the accident saying it took place on a Monday. The accident occurred on Tuesday, January 28, 1986.
These are just three examples of the errors I found. There are more. For a book written by a former high school teacher and a current history college professor I found this book to be too error filled to be taken seriously. We learn nothing about the crew until page 13 (out of a 39 page book - not including glossary and index) and only then, we learn their name and a brief one sentence description on them. This is truly sad and a lost opportunity to teach children about the actual people that were lost on that cold, Tuesday morning. We learn nothing about Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Judith Resnik, El Onizuka, Ron McNair or Gregory Jarvis. Instead, as with most books written on Challenger, we are treated to three pages to Christa McAuliffe and the Teacher in Space program.
The one positive I can say about this book is the descriptions of what might have happened to the crew after Challenger came apart. This was written matter-of-factly and didn't sugar coat the tragedy the crew was facing at that time.
At $26 for a library binding book, I will recommend to skip this book. It's just not worth it and I won't be adding it to my space book collection.
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