Word: launching
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...bulk of Challenger: A Major Malfunction consists of McConnell's reconstruction of the three days leading up to the doomed launch. He punctuates this narrative with flashbacks tracing the pork--barrel politicking and bureaucratic bungling that plagued the shuttle program from its inception...
...nearly a month before the Challenger launch, no important shuttle manager or technician had a single day off. Ten and fourteen-hour days were commonplace. One NASA doctor even told McConnell that heroin, cocaine and hallucinogens were "readily available" on shop floors...
ABOUT HALFWAY through the book McConnell begins his excruciatingly detailed description of the three days preceding the doomed launch. Unfortunately, this blow-by-blow account of the accident is ??? engaging than the shuttle's shadowy history...
...memorable scenes from the second half of the book is his portrayal of a teleconference which took place the night before the launch between engineers at Morton Thiokol, makers of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters, and NASA officials. Thiokol's engineers spent almost an hour explaining why they believed that cold temperatures at Cape Canaveral would impair the performance of their now infamous O-rings. The Thiokol engineers voted unanimously to recommend against launching...
...American Legion delegation, he declared, "We want to raise the cost to those animals that hold the hostages." Yet Shultz, a strong advocate of last April's U.S. bombing of Libya to punish Leader Muammar Gaddafi's support for terrorism, shied away from any hint that Washington would launch military action to free kidnaped Americans in Lebanon or take reprisals against their captors. Said Shultz: "We should not go running around using our capacity for force right and left...