Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Space Shuttle Challenger

Ten Journeys into the Unknown

  • Book
  • © 2007

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ben Evans

    1. Atherstone Warwickshire, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • A comprehensive and readable history of the remarkable achievements of Space Shuttle Challenger
  • Challenger’s in-depth story, as told by the astronauts, scientists and engineers who flew and knew her
  • A comprehensive reference source combining technical data, interview, stories and anecdotes
  • First-hand accounts from Challenger veterans of their experiences and the differences between Challenger and her sister craft

Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books (PRAXIS)

Part of the book sub series: Space Exploration (SPACEE)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Flight of the Geritol Bunch

    Pages 1-44

  3. Ride, Sally Ride

    Pages 45-71

  4. Weightlifters

    Pages 73-93

  5. “At the peak of readiness”

    Pages 95-159

  6. The Untouchables

    Pages 161-230

  7. “Major malfunction”

    Pages 231-272

  8. Challenger missions 1983–1986

    Pages 273-282

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 283-290
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Ironically, the loss of Challenger in January 1986 fired my interest in space exploration more than any other single event. I was nine years old. My parents were, at the time, midway through moving house and, luckily, the TV was one of the few domestic items still to be packed. I watched the entire horror unfold live on all of the network stations. Admittedly, my fascination with rockets and astronauts, stars and planets had begun several years earlier, but Challenger's destruction turned it from an occasional hobby to a fascination which has remained with me ever since. In September 1988, aged 11,1 came home from school to watch STS-26 return the Shuttle fleet to orbital operations. Five years later, I gave a speech on the STS-51L disaster to my teacher as part of my GCSE English assessment. Another decade passed and, now a teacher myself, I returned to my school one cold Monday morning to explain to my pupils what had happened to Challenger's sister ship, Columbia, a few days earlier. In some ways, the loss of Columbia affected me more deeply than Challenger.

Reviews

From the reviews:

"Space writer Evans details the ten missions of the space shuttle Challenger, including its last tragic flight. … He covers both the problems and the successes throughout the ten missions. This book is very readable and a good survey of the shuttle program in the 1980s … and thus would be suitable for the nontechnical student interested in the shuttle program. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates." (D. B. Mason, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (2), 2007)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Atherstone Warwickshire, UK

    Ben Evans

About the author

Ben Evans was born in October 1976 in Solihull and attended the University of Birmingham, from where he gained a degree in Ancient History and Archaeology and later a teaching qualification. He has written extensively for SPACEFLIGHT, COUNTDOWN and ASTRONOMY NOW magazines since 1992 and has previously had two books published by Praxis. These were NASA'S VOYAGER MISSIONS (2003) and, most recently, SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA (2005). He researched and wrote both books whilst training and working as a history and English secondary school teacher. He is not a professional scientist, but merely a space enthusiast with an interest in writing.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation