On the cold morning of January 28, 1986, the world watched in astonishment as the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean 72 seconds after being launched.
Today, the public can now understand what happened thanks to the work of two former NASA employees: Allan McDonald and James Hansen, history professor and director of Auburn's honors college.
"Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster," by McDonald and Hansen is a book focused on McDonald's inside story.
"I never thought I'd write about it," Hansen said.
But recently McDonald, an engineer who knew all of NASA's secrets, decided to use his 1,400 pages of hand-written notes on the Challenge disaster to educate the public.
When he first began, McDonald wrote a book and submitted it to agents in New York City because it was what he thought writers were supposed to do.
"It was a fatal flaw," McDonald said. "It was written above an eighth-grade reading level, and they told me it wouldn't be able to sell."
Not wanting to dumb his book down, McDonald searched for an answer and discovered exactly who he needed unexpectedly while shopping.
"I found (Hansen's) 'First Man' and read it over the holidays," McDonald said. "Neil Armstrong is one of the most unlikely people to have a biography written about him, so I decided to talk to him."
Finding that Armstrong had been so satisfied after working with Hansen, McDonald sought him out and they made an agreement to get it published together.
After two years of hard work, the book was published in April 2009 by the University Press of Florida.
The book includes all the details of what McDonald experienced before and after the Challenger disaster that could have been prevented.
"This was the first death of astronauts in flight," Hansen said. "It was live on TV and was replayed for hours. Then came the traumatic investigation ... it was frightening to not know exactly what happened."
Many individuals, including McDonald, had been told of the deadly consequences if the Challenger was launched under the cold conditions.
"I refused to sign off on the launch," McDonald said.
That didn't stop his superiors from stepping in, and it was in these moments McDonald made a conscious decision to write down all he knew and all he would learn from others.
"It's a book every engineering student should read," Hansen said.
Vivek Ahuja, a doctorate student in aerospace engineering, bought and has now read much of the professor's book.
"It's to the point," Ahuja said. "It easily bridges the gap between the historical and technical decisions."
The book not only focuses on the disaster itself, but also on the integrity that McDonald had when dealing with the situation.
"I want people to know that when they see something that's wrong they must prevail with truth," McDonald said. "It doesn't matter what your job is."
Hansen has written many other books including his New York Times Best Seller "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong," "The Bird Is on the Wing: Aerodynamics and the Progress of the American Airplane," and "The Wind and Beyond: A Documentary Journey Into the History of Aerodynamics in America: The Ascent of the Airplane (The NASA History Series)."
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