{"product_id":"book-mugp","title":"Apollo 1 and the Space Shuttle Challenger: The History of NASA’s Two Most Notorious Disasters","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs Apollo 11’s name suggests, there were actually a number of Apollo missions that came before, many of which included testing the rockets and different orbital and lunar modules in orbit. In fact, it wasn’t until Apollo 8 that a manned vehicle was sent towards the Moon and back, and before that mission, the most famous Apollo mission was Apollo 1, albeit for all the wrong reasons. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere were no delusions regarding the dangers of manned space travel, but they were brought home on January 27, 1967, when all three astronauts were killed by a fire that ignited in the cabin during a launch rehearsal. To this day, there is still debate over what ignited the fire, but the disaster made clear that the modules being used by NASA had a series of fatal flaws. After the Apollo 1 tragedy, NASA changed its plans by first running a series of unmanned missions to test the Saturn rockets and the different modules throughout 1967 and early 1968. and it would not be until Apollo 7 launched about 20 months after the disaster that NASA dared to conduct another manned mission. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\tOn the morning of January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle \u003cem\u003eChallenger\u003c\/em\u003e launched for the 10th time, beginning mission STS-51-L. Space shuttles had already successfully completed 24 missions, and no American spacecraft had ever failed to reach orbit during an official mission. On this mission, the \u003cem\u003eChallenger\u003c\/em\u003e was carrying a satellite for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites system, which was to be deployed in orbit. The crew included Ronald McNair, who had already been the second African-American in space, and Ellison Onizuka, who had already been the first Asian-American astronaut in space. But the highlight of the mission was to be the “NASA Teacher in Space Project,” in which a civilian teacher would give teaching lessons to his or her class while onboard the space shuttle. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Findaway World, LLC","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49793770848560,"sku":"BDmugp","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/727179-mugp-Square.jpg?v=1746855685","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-mugp","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}