When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, millions of Americans became bound together in a single, historic moment. Many still vividly remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the tragedy. In The Challenger Launch Decision, Diane Vaughan recreates the steps leading up to that fateful decision, contradicting conventional interpretations to prove that what occurred at NASA was not skulduggery or misconduct but a disastrous mistake.

Journalists and investigators have historically cited production problems and managerial wrong-doing as the reasons behind the disaster. The Presidential Commission uncovered a flawed decision-making process at the space agency as well, citing a well-documented history of problems with the O-ring and a dramatic last-minute protest by engineers over the Solid Rocket Boosters as evidence of managerial neglect.

Why did NASA managers, who not only had all the information prior to the launch but also were warned against it, decide to proceed? In retelling how the decision unfolded through the eyes of the managers and the engineers, Vaughan uncovers an incremental descent into poor judgment, supported by a culture of high-risk technology. She reveals how and why NASA insiders, when repeatedly faced with evidence that something was wrong, normalized the deviance so that it became acceptable to them.

No safety rules were broken. No single individual was at fault. Instead, the cause of the disaster is a story not of evil but of the banality of organizational life. This powerful work explains why the Challenger tragedy must be reexamined and offers an unexpected warning about the hidden hazards of living in this technological age.

“An engrossing report.”―Booklist “Vividly captures the challenges and privations [Dr. Linenger] endured both before and during his flight.”―Library Journal Nothing on earth compares to Off the Planet―Dr. Jerry Linenger’s dramatic account of space exploration turned survival mission during his 132 days aboard the decaying and unstable Russian space station Mir. Not since Apollo 13 has an American astronaut faced so many catastrophic malfunctions and life-threatening emergencies in one mission. In his remarkable narrative, Linenger chronicles power outages that left the crew in complete darkness, tumbling out of control; chemical leaks and near collisions that threatened to rupture Mir’s hull; and most terrifying of all―a raging fire that almost destroyed the space station and the lives of its entire crew.

* This is a used book in great condiditon! The jacket is missing but there are no other signs of wear. In this book, his last, Carl Sagan shows once again his extraordinary ability to interpret the mysteries of life and the majesty of the universe for the general reader. Brilliant, eloquent, and imbued with Sagan's uniquely childlike sense of awe, this entertaining collection of essays captures the authors spirit at its best.

In Billions and Billions Sagan applies what we know about science, mathematics, and space to everyday life, as well as to the exploration of many essential questions concerning the environment and our future. Ranging far and wide in subject matter, he takes his readers on a soaring journey, from the invention of chess to the possibility of life on Mars, from Monday Night Football to the relationship between the United States and Russia, from global warming to the abortion debate. And, on a more intimate note, we are given a rare glimpse of the author himself as he movingly describes his valiant fight for his life, his love of his family, and his personal beliefs about death and God.

Throughout these essays, Sagan provides clarity and understanding for an audience eager to make sense of the world around it as it prepares for the challenges of the coming millennium, and in the process he illuminates his strongly held belief that we have the ability to change the world and our lives for the better.

Sagan has said, We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers. With this book, as in his magnificent career, he makes this world significant indeed.

Focusing on the first manned flight to leave the earth's orbit, this book puts the space race in the context of American and world history. Christmas 1998 marks the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 8 flight. Color photos.

Spaceflight This comprehensive, easy-to-use guide tells the fascinating story of one of the greatest scientific achievements of our times—the conquest of space. Produced in association with the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution and its scientific experts, Spaceflight recounts the epic adventure of the men, women, and machines that took us into space. This Smithsonian Guide features:Detailed text by Smithsonian experts clearly explaining how spaceflight developedMore than 350 full-color photographs and explanatory illustrations of spacecraft, equipment, people, and eventsFull-color foldout timeline of spaceflight milestones decade by decade40-page quick-access A-to-Z glossary, including capsule biographies, special terms, and key conceptsOther titles: Aviation • Planets • Zoo Animals • Automobiles • Railroads

Blending memoir, science, history and theology, Guy Consolmagno takes us on this exploration of Vatican science. We tour the Vatican's meteorite collection and learn how astronomy progresses despite its dearth of tactile evidence. It seeks to prove that not all religion is hostile to science.

Ever since Sputnik, we have been locked in a space race with the Russians. With the end of the Soviet era the relationship has evolved into a collaborative one, albeit with strong competitive underpinnings. With the building of the International Space Station, the strains in the alliance are beginning to show. This volume is a detailed, investigative history of the U.S.-Russian space relationship from a long-time NASA insider turned commentator. Oberg describes, from the points of view of key individuals both inside and outside the program, the strengths and weaknesses that each side has brought to the partnership, the original hopes and promises for its benefits, and its triumphs and dissappointments. Proficient in Russian and a frequent visitor to that country, Oberg reveals for the first time the extent of the greed, corruption, and covered-up setbacks that have marked the devolution of the Soviet space program to its recent virtual collapse. He covers the U.S.-Mir venture, and NASA's reluctance to learn from its lessons. Ultimately, Oberg examines the prospects for the International Space Station, a project that he believes was begun with good intentions, but is in danger of running aground. With the Russians unable (or unwilling) to build their pieces of the station, NASA must assume more and more responsibility for it in an era when their "faster, cheaper, better" philosophy is already wearing very thin. Recent losses such as the Mars Observer are nothing compared to the disasters that could befall a cheaply built space station. This is a story told with a balanced perspective. Oberg has extensive contacts within NASA and is considered a leading expert in the Russian space prgram. While he is still enthusiastic about many of NASA's goals, he is also able to take an informed critical stance on the space program's shortcomings. "Star-Crossed Orbits" is full of the technology and space lore that space buffs love; but it also contains colorful characters, political intrigue and timely discussion of international space issues, making it an appealing book for the general reader.

By Frank Borman with Robert J. Serling. An Autobiography. ISBN 0-688-07929-6. From the back flap: "With the help of Robert J. Serling, Frank Borman (American astronaut) has written a full-blown, thoroughly involving autobiography that is so authoritative, and so rich in detail about an important and thrilling era in our history, that it places the reader right in the middle of the excitement and tragedy of it all. It is the story of a homegrown American who carved out a chunk of that history, both in the wild blue yonder and here on earth."

In 1961, just as NASA launched its first man into space, a group of women underwent secret testing in the hopes of becoming America’s first female astronauts. They passed the same battery of tests at the legendary Lovelace Foundation as did the Mercury 7 astronauts, but they were summarily dismissed by the boys’ club at NASA and on Capitol Hill. The USSR sent its first woman into space in 1963; the United States did not follow suit for another twenty years.

For the first time, Martha Ackmann tells the story of the dramatic events surrounding these thirteen remarkable women, all crackerjack pilots and patriots who sometimes sacrificed jobs and marriages for a chance to participate in America’s space race against the Soviet Union. In addition to talking extensively to these women, Ackmann interviewed Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and others at NASA and in the White House with firsthand knowledge of the program, and includes here never-before-seen photographs of the Mercury 13 passing their Lovelace tests.

Despite the crushing disappointment of watching their dreams being derailed, the Mercury 13 went on to extraordinary achievement in their lives: Jerrie Cobb, who began flying when she was so small she had to sit on pillows to see out of the cockpit, dedicated her life to flying solo missions to the Amazon rain forest; Wally Funk, who talked her way into the Lovelace trials, went on to become one of the first female FAA investigators; Janey Hart, mother of eight and, at age forty, the oldest astronaut candidate, had the political savvy to steer the women through congressional hearings and later helped found the National Organization for Women.

A provocative tribute to these extraordinary women, The Mercury 13 is an unforgettable story of determination, resilience, and inextinguishable hope.

The improbable story of the wildest idea-a space craft powered by hydrogen bombs-to come out of the space race.

It was the late 1950s. The Cold War was raging. Sputnik had made its voyage and the space race was on. In America, it was the age of tail fins and "duck and cover," but it was also a time of big ideas and dreams. On his way to school one day, George Dyson learned of a truly fantastical idea: massive space vehicles that would be powered by explosions of multiple hydrogen bombs. Among the brilliant minds behind this project was George's father, the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson.

Project Orion chronicles this fascinating episode in U.S. scientific research, while capturing a unique time in American history and culture. The project brought together a cadre of brilliant physicists, the first such assemblage since the Manhattan Project of fifteen years earlier. In an idyllic seaside community in southern California-the very picture of 1950s suburban prosperity-a handful of scientists, tackled a massive project that required the ingenuity of an engineer and the vision of a great theoretician. Their work-ambitious but ultimately futile-took place against the political and cultural backdrop of the Cold War, when nuclear technology spelled both promise and terror.

Dyson's prodigious historical and scientific research, combined with his personal reminiscences and connections, make for a lively, richly detailed narrative.

lan Shepard was the brashest, cockiest, and most flamboyant of America’s original Mercury Seven, but he was also regarded as the best. Intense, colorful, and dramatic—the man who hit a golf ball on the moon—he was among the most private of America’s public figures and, until his death in 1998, he guarded the story of his life zealously.

Light This Candle, based on Neal Thompson’s exclusive access to private papers and interviews with Shepard’s family and closest friends—including John Glenn, Wally Schirra, and Gordon Cooper—offers a riveting, action-packed account of Shepard’s life. Among the first men to fly off aircraft carriers, he was one of the most fearless test pilots. He endured long separations from his devoted wife and three daughters to fly dangerous missions, working his way up the ranks despite clashes with authority over his brazen flying maneuvers and penchant for risky pranks. Hugely competitive, he beat out John Glenn for the first Mercury spaceflight and then overcame a rare illness to return to space again on Apollo 14.

He took every challenge head-on and seemed to win every time.

Long overdue, Light This Candle is a candid and inspiring account of a bold American life.

On February 12, 1997, two Russian cosmonauts joined an American astronaut on board the only permanent manned outpost in space, the dilapidated, eleven-year-old Mir space station. It was to be a routine mission, the fourth of seven trips to Mir that NASA astronauts would take as "dress rehearsals" for the two countries' partnership in a new International Space Station they were building back on Earth. But there had been bad omens: a Moscow psychic who predicted a mysterious disaster; a Russian doctor who warned that the crew was psychologically incompatible. Within two weeks the omens were borne out, as the three men were suddenly forced to fight the worst fire in space history.

This was only the beginning of what would become the most dangerous mission in the thirty-six-year history of manned space travelan epic, six-month misadventure that would climax in the most harrowing accident man has faced in space since Apollo 13. In Dragonfly, bestselling author Bryan Burrough tells for the first time the incredible true story of how a joint Russian-American crew narrowly survived almost every trauma an astronaut could imagine: fire, power blackouts, chemical leaks, docking failures, nail-biting spacewalks, and constant mechanical breakdowns, all climaxing in a dramatic midspace collision that left everyone on board scrambling for their lives.

Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the cosmonauts, astronauts, Russian and American ground controllers, psychologists, and scientists involved, Dragonfly is the saga of a mission as fraught with political and bureaucratic intrigues as any Washington potboiler. Using never-before-released internal NASA memoranda, flight logs, and debriefings, Burrough vividly portrays an American space program in which many astronauts refuse to raise safety concerns for fear they will be frozen out of future missions. It offers an unprecedented look inside the rattletrap Russian space program, where the desperate thirst for hard currency leads to safety shortcuts and exhausted, puppetlike cosmonauts endure truly inhuman pressures from their unfeeling, all-powerful masters on the ground.

In Dragonfly, for the first time, the American astronauts who journeyed to Mir speak out bluntly about the failings of the program, from the rigors of training at Russia's Star City military base to the slapdash experiments they were required to perform in space. Yet through it all the men and women of the Russian and American programs persevered, forging friendships that will serve them well as the two countries prepare for the first launches of the International Space Station in late 1998. Theirs is a classic story of a triumph over adversity, destined to be one of the most enduring and widely celebrated adventure stories of our time.

In Lost in Space, Greg Klerkx argues that ever since the last human left the moon in 1972, the Space Age has been stuck in the wrong orbit—and NASA, the organization that once fueled the world’s space-faring hopes, has been largely responsible for keeping it there. With the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, there has never been a more critical time for anyone interested in the future of space exploration to ask two questions: Whatever happened to the Space Age? And how do we get it back?

In pursuit of answers to these questions, Klerkx goes behind the scenes to reveal how NASA devolved from a pioneer of new horizons to a blundering bureaucracy concerned mainly with its own continued existence. Klerkx describes how NASA became dependent on projects geared mainly toward the needs of its budgetary allies—leading contractors in the “big aerospace” community—while drifting ever further from the public that had once cheered on its efforts to explore humankind’s last frontier. Chief among his criticisms, Klerkx makes clear the misguided and expensive folly of the space shuttle—“the Edsel of space transportation”—and chronicles NASA’s clumsy development of the money-gobbling International Space Station.

A damning, eye-opening indictment of NASA, Lost in Space is filled with fascinating perspectives on the ideas and technology behind modern space travel. But above all, Lost in Space is a story of people: some who devoted their lives to NASA and continue to believe in its promise, and others who became embittered by NASA’s failures and have struck out on their own, thereby giving rise to the “alternative” space movement that may hold the key to the future of humans in space—with or without NASA.

Deke Slayton was one of the first seven Mercury astronauts—and he might have been the first American in space. Instead, he became the first chief of American Astronaut Corps. It was Deke Slayton who selected the crews who flew the Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab missions. It was Deke Slayton who made Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon.

Deke! is Deke Slayton's' story—told in his own words and in the voices of the men and women who worked with him and knew him best. Deke Slayton's knowledge of how the .S. manned space program worked is the missing piece of every space buff's puzzle. Now, after decades of silence, he tells his priceless stories of those years when American was engaged in the greatest voyage of exploration in human history.