The Burning Blue

The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA's Challenger Disaster

By: Kevin Cook

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

On January 28, 1986, NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Christa McAuliffe, America's "Teacher in Space", was instantly killed, along with the other six members of the mission. At least that's what most of us remember.

Kevin Cook tells us what really happened on that ill-fated, unforgettable day. He traces the pressures - leading from NASA to the White House - that triggered the fatal order to launch on an ice-cold Florida morning. Cook takes listeners inside the shuttle for the agonizing minutes after the explosion, which the astronauts did indeed survive. He uncovers the errors and corner-cutting that led an overconfident space agency to launch a crew that had no chance to escape.

But this is more than a corrective to a now-dimming memory. Centering on McAuliffe, a charmingly down-to-earth civilian on the cusp of history, The Burning Blue animates a colorful cast of characters: a pair of red-hot flyers at the shuttle's controls, the second female and first Jewish astronaut, the second Black astronaut, and the first Asian American and Buddhist in space. Drawing vivid portraits of Christa and the astronauts, Cook makes listeners forget the fate they're hurtling toward.

©2021 Kevin Cook (P)2021 Tantor

Excellent

Excellent book.
Gives depth to a story I saw unfold as a 14 yr old boy. Informative and touching.

Heartbreaking and Informative!

Cook does a tremendous job with this book. The listener really gets to know each of these hero’s and the tragedy is just as devastating all these years later.

The Burning Blue

Without a doubt, a definite must read! Fascinating, check it out it's well worth it.

Not bad, but not much new either

Spoilers if you don’t know about the incident.
If you have even a small interest in the Challenger disaster, you probably came across all the information in this book on YouTube and blogs. I guess I was hoping that it went deeper into some of the major issues, or some new details regarding the crew post-throttle up. It is pretty much a surface level book. If you want to learn about the incident, this book is a great resource. It does cover just about everything. For me, though, I didn’t really learn anything new. (Judy Resnik’s hair in camera mechanics was new to me.) It seems like it is another resource that held the families concern very high while writing this. (This is a nice gesture, but I want to know if there are more details that never get written about because they want to maintain the dignity of the families.) so many writers will say, “I would go into this subject further, but out of respect for the families, I will not.”) i see this a lot. I always thought the astronauts blew up until a few years ago. I was in 5th grade in 1986. It seems some of the crew were found whole, and others were just some tissue and residue. This is much like the Netflix documentary, except this does mention the fact that the crew or some of the crew were alive for the fall to the ocean. I think the Netflix doc leaves this whole fact out. This is a well written book. If you want to learn about the tragedy, this is a great starting point.

Great Story

Very inspiring and educational story. Week researched and engagingly read. Highly recommended for teachers and historians.