More than 38 years after the space shuttle Challenger explosion, a new book explores the events leading up to the 1986 disaster and examines the complicated history of the country’s space program.
On Wednesday, Adam Higginbotham, author of “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space,” will discuss his book during a virtual talk hosted by the Dearborn Public Library.
In an interview with the Free Press, Higginbotham said the book tells the story of the Challenger in its full context — showing how challenging it had been to create the shuttle, the phenomenon the space shuttle program had been in popular culture and the impact the accident had, not only on the families of the crew but also American society as a whole.
The core of the story, he said, “is about the gulf that there was between what the engineers and astronauts who worked at NASA understood to be the risks of space flight — and the way that the public perceived it.”
When the Challenger launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 28, 1986, it was the 25th mission for the space shuttle program and had garnered much media attention because a schoolteacher was selected to be part of the crew. Just over a minute into the flight, the shuttle exploded, killing all seven crew members.
At the time of the event, Higginbotham said he was 17 and living in Wells, England. He had returned home in the evening after being out with friends and his mother told him what she had heard on the news.
“I still remember … how hard I found it to comprehend what had happened,” he said.
Higginbotham said that growing up, he was interested in the space program and “was completely convinced that NASA was this almost faultless organization of geniuses that could achieve the practically impossible on a regular basis.”
Dan Lodge, a librarian at the Dearborn Public Library who will lead the hourlong discussion with Higginbotham, said he was struck by the book’s thoroughness, including the detailed recollections of people the author interviewed.
“There are a lot of family memories, and I was just amazed at how he was able to get them,” he said.
Lodge said he can remember exactly where he was when the disaster happened: working at the University of Michigan undergraduate library, putting books on a shelf, when he heard news of the catastrophe on the radio. At the time, he said, he was an undergraduate student at the university.
Higginbotham’s book details other tragedies before and after the Challenger explosion, including the 1967 deaths of three astronauts in a launchpad fire during a test ahead of the first crewed flight of the Apollo mission and the 2003 deaths of seven astronauts aboard the Columbia shuttle as it reentered the atmosphere. An investigation into the Columbia shuttle incident, Higginbotham’s book points out, found that many lessons from the Challenger disaster had gone unheeded.
A common theme running through the accidents “is hubris and complacency,” Higginbotham said. “Success breeding overconfidence … that’s really what it boils down to.”
Higginbotham, who also authored the book “Midnight in Chernobyl” about the 1986 nuclear power plant accident, said the obvious lesson that can be drawn from tragedies like the Challenger explosion, the sinking of the Titanic and the Chernobyl disaster “is one of mankind’s overconfidence in the promise of technology.”
The talk with Higginbotham will be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The public can attend the event online over Zoom or in person at the Henry Ford Centennial Library, 16301 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn, where the virtual discussion will be shown on the screen in the auditorium.
The event is free to the public, but attendees must register online at dearbornlibrary.org or by calling 313-943-2330.
Kristi Tanner is a data reporter. Contact her at ktanner@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @midatalove.
