Prescription for Disaster

I have a friend who read this book, who called to suggest that I buy it, and who tells me that: Bearing in mind the time period (Cold War years), there still existed in the minds of U.S. decision makers the need to maintain pressure on Russia. Unfortunately, the fiery end of this story leaves little left unsaid for the surviving families on behalf of their loved ones who, shortly after boarding that ill-fated shuttle, became sacrifical lambs caught in the crossfire of a frenzied race for air and space superiority. I thought that this book was factual, and that it showed the lengths that the U.S. Government will go to be superior - even with lies to the general public. The first shuttle launch never happened. It did not even have an engine. It was basically a large glider, with a mock up fired into space, with another mock up landing out in the desert. They pinched pennies on survival equipment way before the Challenger disaster...which could have been avoided completely. All of the above comments are expounded on factually and specifically in this book, and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in the truth concerning this subject. In the aftermath of this disaster, the official story to the public was that the crew died instantly. However, it was later determined that in fact, there was a 20-minute period of agonizing torment prior to their deaths. The underlying opportunity which created the stage was the shape of the exterior covering for the shuttle, which came from a company by the name of Morton Thiercaull. The tubes were oval shaped, and the techs affixing the tubes to the exterior of the shuttle were using plumber's putty (which cracked and fell out, leading to the disaster) to compensate for that shape. Later, the engineers claimed that they did not know thay were that far out around. During the design phase, there was talk of an ejection pod which could have been used, but which was ruled out due to cost.