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Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger Disaster – an Interview with Kevin Cook
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3jbGLnf
Interview Timeline
Kevin Cook has written for many publications and has written numerous histories. His latest book is about Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger disaster. We spoke about the disater and the book. The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA’s Challenger Disaster (Henry Holt, 2021)
0:36 – Kevin Cook talks about why he wrote a book about McAuliffe and the disaster.
1:54 – Kevin talks about how the book is structured.
3:54 – Kevin talks about McAuliffe’s experiences in joining the program.
5:23 – Kevin talks about writing with a general readership in mind.
9:15 – Kevin talks about researching the aftermath of the disaster.
12:15 – Kevin talks about the restrictions on astronauts in speaking their mind.
14:03 – Kevin talks about the payload specialist program.
16:18 – Kevin talks about the celebrity status and choosing of payload specialists.
19:12 – Kevin talks about McAuliffe’s approach to trying to join the program.
20:46 – Kevin talks about people’s audition tapes for the payload specialist program.
22:12 – Kevin talks about the training process to get ready.
24:17 – Kevin talks about current plans to put civilians into space.
25:14 – Kevin talks about the research for the book.
28:35 – Kevin talks about the diversity of the crew.
30:50 – Kevin talks about what happened after the external tank blew up.
33:34 – Kevin talks about the chapter on the explosion.
35:51 – Kevin talks about what NASA did after the disaster.
36:52 – Kevin goes into more detail about the disaster.
40:01 – Kevin talks about pilot training for disasters.
41:38 – Kevin talks about getting to know about the astronauts during his research.
43:40 – Kevin talks about radio transmissions during the disaster.
45:43 – Kevin talks about getting his book published.
47:17 – Kevin talks about working with Henry Holt.
52:32 – Kevin talks about the publicity stunt aspect of the payload specialist program.
53:16 – Kevin can be found at burningbluebook.com
Links of interest
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250755551
https://www.burningbluebook.com/
Contact Information
For more “Technology and Space” please follow me at technologyandspace.com or www.spacewalksmoneytalks.com , on Facebook at Spacewalks Money Talks, on twitter at SpacewalksMT, on youtube at Spacewalks Money Talks , and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Kevin Cook
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, space history, manned space missions, audio interviews, space book, NASA history, podcast, Henry Holt,
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3jbGLnf
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