Challenger is a Narrative Non-Fiction Book about the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. The book details the history of NASA post Apollo program that lead up to disaster.
There is a lineage of NASA space flight disasters:
- 1967 - Apollo 1 fire where Gus Grisom, Ed White and Roger Chaffe were lost to a fire in the module while on the ground for a test
- 1970 - Apollo 13âs near disaster flight after an oxygen tank ruptured
- 1986 - Challenger shuttle disaster
- 2003 - Columbia shuttle disaster
The primary cause of the disaster was the O-Rings between the solid rocket segments of the booster became inelastic in cold weather. Despite having a double O-Ring design between segments, both O-Rings were unable to flex and create a seal in the joint. This resulted in hot gas leaking out of the SRB and igniting the main fuel tank.