The Reagan Administration pushed hard for NASA to launch shuttle mission 51L, before it was ready. 73 seconds into the launch, the shuttle exploded, killing seven and leaving a nation traumatized. Richard Cook, lead resource analyst at NASA for the Solid Rocket Boosters, was the first to warn of possible catastrophic failure. His memo, detailing astronaut concerns and warnings from the shuttle builders at Morton Thiokol, was ignored by top NASA officials and members of the Reagan administration. In the aftermath, NASA launched an investigation to "discover" the cause of the disaster. Though within NASA there was absolute certainty about the O-ring failure, they began a cover-up by publicly proclaiming that the cause was unknown. A Reagan administration Commission perpetrated the same lie. When Cook realized that the Commission was not interested in the truth, he leaked the original documents to the New York Times, setting off a cascade of disclosures, including revelations by Morton Thiokol engineers that they had tried to stop the launch.--From publisher description.

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Chernobyl comes the ... dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger disaster based on ... new archival research and in-depth reporting--a riveting history that reads like a thriller"--

National Book Award * Golden Kite Award Winner * Six Starred Reviews A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman. Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior. Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images. Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head. Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Caden Bosch is torn. Challenger Deep is a deeply powerful and personal novel from one of today's most admired writers for teens. Laurie Halse Anderson, award-winning author of Speak, calls Challenger Deep "a brilliant journey across the dark sea of the mind; frightening, sensitive, and powerful. Simply extraordinary."

What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades. Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high performance. Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale. The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.

For the first time in history, a teacher was going to outerspace. All eyes were focused on the doomed flight of the space shuttle Challenger. A heart-breaking seventy-three seconds into lift-off, the Challenger caught aflame and broke apart. This volume details the events of January 28, 1986, which resulted in the death of seven astronauts. Readers are provided with background information on the tragedy, while examining related controversies. Readers are also given personal narratives from those who witnessed or were involved in the disaster.

ÊThe significance of the Radiolaria in regard to the relations of life in the ocean has been increased in a most unexpected manner by the discoveries of the Challenger. Large swarms of these delicate Rhizopoda were found not only at the surface of the open ocean but also in its different bathymetrical zones. Thousands of new species make up the wonderful Radiolarian ooze, which covers large areas of the deep-sea bed, and was brought up from abysses of from 2000 to 4000 fathoms by the sounding machine of the Challenger. They open a new world to morphological investigation. When ten years ago (in the autumn of 1876) I accepted the enticing invitation of Sir Wyville Thomson to undertake the investigation of these microscopic creatures, I hoped to be able to accomplish the task with some degree of completeness within a period of from three to five years, but the further my investigations proceeded the more immeasurable seemed the range of forms, like the boundless firmament of stars. I soon found myself compelled to decide between making a detailed study of a selection of special forms or giving as complete a survey as possible of the varied forms of the whole class; and I decided upon the latter course, having regard both to the general plan of the Challenger Reports, and to the interests of our acquaintance with the class as a whole. I must, however, confess at the close of my work that my original intention is far from having been fulfilled. The extraordinary extent and varied difficulties of the undertaking must excuse the many deficiencies. The special examination of the Challenger collection was for the most part completed in the summer of 1881; I collected its results in my Entwurf eines Radiolarien-Systems auf Grund von Studien der Challenger-Radiolarien (Jenaische Zeitschr. f. Naturw., Bd. xv., 1881). Since the manuscript of this preliminary communication was completed only a few days before my departure for Ceylon, and since I was unable to correct the proofs myself, several errors have crept into the Prodromus Systematis Radiolarium included in it. These have been corrected in the following more extensive working out of it. Even at that time I had distinguished 630 genera and more than 2000 species; but on the revision of these, which I undertook immediately on my return from India, this number was considerably increased. The total number of forms here described amounts to 739 genera and 4318 species; of these 3508 are new, as against 810 previously described. In spite of this large number, however, and in spite of the astonishing variety of the new and marvellous forms, the riches of the Challenger collection are by no means exhausted. A careful and patient worker who would devote a second decade to the work, would probably increase the number of new forms (especially of the smaller ones) by more than a thousand; but for a really complete examination, the lifetime of one man would not suffice.