Welcome to Litsy!

I had little background knowledge of the Challenger disaster and I‘m on a roll with space in books and tv so I thought I‘d dive into the background of the space shuttle. What a thorough read on the technical aspects of the vehicle, the political dynamics, and the big players of NASA this was! But Higginbotham dedicates most of the book to the profiles of the astronauts who were aboard the shuttle. I can see why this has many positive reviews.

Loved this! Even though I knew roughly how this story ended, the journey there made for a suspenseful read. Great work by Lovell and Kluger.

I listened to this as part of my library‘s book challenge —using a part on their catalog that suggests books like one you already read. Since I loved The Six earlier this year, thought I‘d try this history of the first group of astronaut wives. It was a good listen for my commute & a little sad when some wives lost husbands, but was not on the same level as The Six. 3⭐️ liked it but should have checked Litsy for reviews before reading

July made for some very difficult decisions in the NONFICTION bracket for #2024ReadingBrackets. After much deliberation, the tagged book advanced to the quarterfinals.

Very informative read about the Challenger disaster and the culture at NASA that led to the fateful and ultimately tragic decision to launch despite indications of problems with the O-rings. It‘s pretty technical, especially in the first half. Thankfully I have an aerospace engineer on speed dial (my son) who could explain some of the more complex sections. Highly recommend, even if you don‘t have your own personal rocket scientist. 😀

Wow! Excellent and thorough. The super technical chapters about how the solid rocket boosters worked were a tougher slog for me than the chapters in which Vaughan laid out the theory of the normalization of deviance, but this was well worth reading overall. I borrowed my copy but need one of my own for a re-read!

Finished this chunkster of an audiobook today. (Took from Virginia to Tennessee and then from Virginia to West Virginia.) My husband and I both really enjoyed it, although it almost went too much in depth. I did appreciate that it focused on all the astronauts not just McAuliffe.

Voyager 1 is back online! What an amazing piece of technology. 47 years into a 5-year mission, both Voyager 1 and 2 are in interstellar space, having escaped the influence of the sun's solar winds and magnetic field. It takes almost two days to see how Voyager 1 will react to a command sent from Earth.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-program/voyager-1/voyager-1-returning-...

The Challenger explosion is the first major event of my life that I indelibly remember. I was 9. So I was very interested in this book and it is absolutely phenomenal. Higginbotham first goes back in NASA history and sets the stage for both the disaster and other previous disasters that happened. By the time he is approaching launch, I was saying, “No!” out loud to the audiobook. It‘s that good.

Oh, how I love it when a box of books arrives in my mailbox. 😍