Truth, Lies, and O-Rings, livre ebook

A Popular Mechanics Best Book

Winner of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award

Finalist for the American Astronautical Society’s Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award

What they didn’t want you to know

On a cold January morning in 1986, NASA launched the Space Shuttle Challenger, despite warnings against doing so by many individuals, including Allan McDonald. The fiery destruction of Challenger on live television moments after launch remains an indelible image in the nation’s collective memory.

In Truth, Lies, and O-Rings, McDonald, a skilled engineer and executive, relives the tragedy from where he stood at Launch Control Center. As he fought to draw attention to the real reasons behind the disaster, he was the only one targeted for retribution by both NASA and his employer, Morton Thiokol, Inc., makers of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters. In this whistle-blowing yet rigorous and fair-minded book, McDonald, with the assistance of internationally distinguished aerospace historian James R. Hansen, addresses all of the factors that led to the accident, some of which were never included in NASA’s Failure Team report submitted to the Presidential Commission.

Truth, Lies, and O-Rings is the first look at the Challenger tragedy and its aftermath from someone who was on the inside, recognized the potential disaster, and tried to prevent it. It also addresses the early warnings of very severe debris issues from the first two post-Challenger flights, which ultimately resulted in the loss of Columbia some fifteen years later.

Foreword

Preface

Prologue

Part I. Red Flags

Chapter 1. When It Rains It Pours

Chapter 2. Tests and “No Tests”

Chapter 3. Dire Warning

Chapter 4. A Total O-Ring Failure

Chapter 5. An Impotent Task Force

Chapter 6. “In the Interest of Avoiding Pain”

Part II. Misdiagnosis

Chapter 7. The Teleconference

Chapter 8. The Caucus

Chapter 9. “Obviously, a Major Malfunction”

Chapter 10. “Don’t Blame Yourself”

Chapter 11. “When Is the Space Shuttle Going Up, Daddy?”

Part III. Search for the Truth

Chapter 12. Shocking the Presidential Commission

Chapter 13. Cover-up

Chapter 14. “God, That Took a Lot of Guts”

Chapter 15. A Leper in the Limelight

Chapter 16. Walking Out

Chapter 17. “The Extremes of Allowable Engineering”

Chapter 18. Changing Hats and Minds

Part IV. Obfuscation

Chapter 19. Rationalization and Innuendo

Chapter 20. 31 Degrees?

Chapter 21. Houston, You Have a Problem

Chapter 22. Finger Pointing

Chapter 23. The Apocalypse Letter

Chapter 24. “Trouble with Your Logic”

Chapter 25. The Monkey Changes Backs

Part V. Commissioners and Congressmen

Chapter 26. The Green Ball Theory

Chapter 27. Commencement

Chapter 28. Commodore Locke Assailed in Washington

Chapter 29. The Buck Stops Here?

Part VI. No Consensus

Chapter 30. The Bell Tolls for Thee

Chapter 31. Redesign and Resurrection

Chapter 32. Boisjoly’s $2 Billion Lawsuit

Chapter 33. No Mountain Too High

Chapter 34. The Peacekeeper Explosion

Chapter 35. Witness for the Defense … and Prosecution

Chapter 36. Confirming the Silver Bullet

Part VII. Return-to-Flight

Chapter 37. Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 38. Premonitions

Chapter 39. Dissolution

Chapter 40. Requiem

Acknowledgments

Big Sky Values: A Biography of Allan J. McDonald

List of Abbreviations

Bibliographical Essay

Further Reading

Index