Challenger Disaster | Launch Day | 3

The novel tells the story of Count Dracula, a vampire who moves from Transylvania to England to spread terror and create more vampires. The story begins with Jonathan Harker, an English solicitor, who travels to Transylvania to finalize the sale of a property to Count Dracula. Upon discovering Dracula's true nature, Harker barely escapes with his life. Dracula then travels to England, where he targets Harker's fiancée, Mina, and her friend Lucy. A group of characters, including Professor Van Helsing, Dr. John Seward, and Quincey Morris, band together to hunt down and destroy Dracula. The novel explores themes of good vs. evil, modernity vs. tradition, and the fears and anxieties of the Victorian era, including immigration, sexual desire, and the role of women in society.

This book provides a comprehensive and riveting history of the Challenger disaster, which occurred on January 28, 1986. Higginbotham delves into the years leading up to the accident, detailing the ambitions, ingenuity, and political cynicism that undermined the space shuttle program. The narrative follows the seven members of the doomed crew and the designers, engineers, and test pilots who struggled to get the first shuttle into space. It highlights the ominous warning signs ignored by NASA, the investigation driven by leakers and whistleblowers, and the broader context of the space race and its impact on the NASA space program. The book is a masterful blend of human drama and scientific detail, exposing the complex costs of innovation and the fatal compromises made in the pursuit of national prestige.