No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time

By Claus Jensen

Book Overview

Sounding a warning about our dangerous reliance on technology and its complex infrastructure, this intriguing study of the Challenger tragedy argues that the disaster was inevitable because of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374120366
• ISBN13: 9780374120368
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Length: 397 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Good general account of Challenger and NASA culture...

One of the first books of the Challenger disaster, this is a good general discussion of that event as well as a decent analysis of NASA's perceived "downfall" from the heights of the Apollo program to the stressed, over-ranging attempts at cheap, monthly launches of the Shuttle. Jensen gives a balanced account of the Launch decision making (although, I agree with the previous reviewer that he could have provided much more technical detail) and subsequent investigation(s) and does a fair job at blaming the right people without seeming to point the finger. Overall, a good starting point for details of the accident, it'll probably make you pursue other accounts (like D. Vaughn's "Challenger Launch Decision").

Not For Space Buffs Only

Well written. Jensen does a nice job of avoiding sappy emotionalism and technical speak. Excellent job of showing how the Challenger explosion was less a technical failure and more of a management failure. Vividly describes how the how the culture at NASA had devolved from the heights of Apollo into the bloated, compartmentalized bureaucracy that exisited in 1985. In the chapter about the tele-conference on the night before launch you can really sense the fear in the engineers as it dawns on them that NASA is going to launch anyway. Finally, Jensen's look at Richard Fennyman and the Rogers Commission is brilliant...brought back the stunning moment when I saw the o-ring in the ice water. This is the best book on the Challenger explosion.

Extremely readable account of the Challenger disaster

An extremely readable account of the Challenger disaster and the NASA culture that led up to it. It does an excellent job in explaining to the general reader what went wrong, and why; but NASA buffs (like myself) have seen most of this stuff before and may find it a bit thin on the excruciating detail we crave. Overall, though, it is very accessable and even quite moving in some passages. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Challenger and an overview of the NASA culture up through the mid-80's.