Ocean State Libraries

Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main. And Bird, his twelve-year-old...

Examines the Challenger disaster from a scientific and historic perspective and discusses its effect on the space shuttle program.

"On the eve of the Challenger explosion in 1986 one engineer goes to the extreme to stop the launch. This hotheaded engineer makes a desperate race against the clock to call off the billion-dollar Challenger launch, convinced the O-ring seals would fail and kill everyone on board. The rocket contracting company, Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA made a business decision. He made a human decision." --

"The untold story of a national trauma-NASA's Challenger explosion-and what really happened to America's Teacher in Space, illuminating the tragic cost of humanity setting its sight on the stars"--