Challenger Quotes

“When asked what he was thinking about when preparing for launch abroad his Mercury-Redstone rocket, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, had infamously replied, "The fact that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“frog named Fleegle; a cross and chain for Caroline; Steve’s class ring from the Virginia Military Institute; a selection of pins and medallions for friends and family; and her own copy of “High Flight.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“When it came time to choose her own small selection of personal items to pack aboard Challenger, McAuliffe included the watch her grandmother had given her; Scott’s favorite stuffed animal—a plush”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“To men and women across the United States, the almost ideal diversity of the Challenger crew-"one of everything"-may have been enough to make the tragedy seem personal. Yet five of the seven were trained astronauts, and all but one were aerospace professionals, each of whom had understood and accepted the risks inherent in their mission. Christa McAuliffe was different. Not only had she captivated the attention of the nation's schoolchildren, but she had embodied the hopes of all those adults who believed, however remotely, that her journey was bringing the Walter Mitty fantasy of citizen spaceflight within their grasp. More than anything else, the poignant public death of the world's first Everyman astronaut made the loss of Challenger a shared tragedy: an instant-replay televised martyrdom in which everyone watching played a part.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“Paine suggested that the moon shot could inspire people to come together to solve the nation's wider problems: "I want you to hitch your wagon to our rocket and tell the people that the NASA program is an example of what this country can do.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“He was nobody's fool; he knew he was going to die. But he never stopped trying to live.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“she recalls the final conversation she had with Greg on the beach that afternoon at Cape Canaveral: But if something happens, just be happy. At first, she was angry about the way he died. “But anger isn’t constructive,” she said recently. “People make mistakes. And other people pay for it sometimes.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“When Grissom’s friend and fellow astronaut John Young asked the mission commander why he didn’t complain more stridently about the poor wiring inside the Apollo capsule, Grissom was blunt: “If I say anything about it, they’ll fire me.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“When asked what he was thinking about when preparing for launch aboard his Mercury-Redstone rocket, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, had infamously replied, “The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“By the end of July 1985, when Challenger took flight with its cargo of hard science and experimental soda,”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“he rated McAuliffe the most well-adjusted of them all. “I know this doesn’t sound very scientific,” he said, “but I think she’s neat.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“At the foot of the ladder, he [Gene Cernan Apollo 17] delivered the short speech he had memorized for the occasion. "Is like to just say what I believe history will record: That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“While the newly arrived astronaut candidates were still—briefly—naive enough to believe the agency’s most optimistic forecasts, the veterans in the office had long ago learned that NASA often told the public and Congress one thing, while it quietly made plans to do another. One old hand liked to joke that the letters of the agency’s acronym stood for Never A Straight Answer.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

“The scope of exploration, and distances, involved in the vehicles’ respective journeys were scarcely comparable: Armstrong and Aldrin’s trip to the lunar surface required them to break entirely free of Earth’s gravity and embark on an eight-day round trip through more than 900,000 miles of outer space; the Space Shuttle would be required merely to travel into low Earth orbit—between 190 and 330 miles above sea level—where it would circle the planet for up to a week before returning home. In some ways, it was as if the sixteenth-century explorer Ferdinand Magellan had proposed to follow up the first circumnavigation of the world by rowing across Lisbon harbor and back.”
― Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space