Reviews
"Isn't just about what went wrong with the Challenger disaster but it is also about what went right as it also recounts what McDonald and others did to redesign the solid rocket motor and get the Space Shuttle flying again."
--Wire Eagle - Auburn University's news wire
"An even-handed take on an American aerospace tragedy."
--Book News
"A major contribution to the literature of the management of technology as well as to the history of the space program."
--Choice
"Whistle-blowing yet rigorous and fair-minded book….The first look at the Challenger tragedy and its aftermath from someone who was on the inside, recognised the potential disaster, and tried to prevent it."
--Spaceflight
"If you want to read a single book to prepare you for being unexpectedly thrust into the maw of ravenous media and politicians, I know of none better."
--Fourmilog
"Allan McDonald's insider account is likely to stand as the most comprehensive rendering of this tragic episode in the history of the US space program. McDonald argues convincingly that the Challenger accident need not have happened, had his warnings been heeded; therein lies the tragedy.
"McDonald, Hansen, and the publisher are to be commended for making this useful memoir available."
--Book Reviews - ISIS
"McDonald provides detailed technical explanations about how the O-rings failed, as well as how the solid rocket boosters were redesigned under his guidance. The testimony before the Presidential Commission still makes for a fascinating read that even the most casual NASA observer will find interesting."
--Alabama Writers' Forum
"Truth, Lies, and O-rings rewards readers with a fascinating account of technological disaster, as well as an eye-opening look at those who drive the space program. In the process it documents the ethical behavior of a compulsively honest engineer and his dogged determination to revive, rehabilitate, and stand by the space shuttle."
--Florida Historical Quarterly
"Capture(s) the essential issues of how rocket engineers, who are human beings and therefore sometimes frail and who sometimes make mistakes, nevertheless design, build, and launch remarkable pieces of machinery that we all ought to be proud of."
--Quest
"Aerospace and technology historians will find the book insightful for illuminating how and why the accident occurred, the interactions of government, industry, and academe, and the continued relevance of human agency within technocratic projects. Military historians and strategists will find themselves drawn to the attempt to create an "operational" system out of a complex assemblage lacking a clear mission. Scholars interested in bureaucratic behavior will find grist for their mills.Truth, Lies, and O-Rings is a critical history on a weighty topic with lessons generalizable to many similar endeavors."
--Technology and Culture, vol. 51
"The engineer's actions are certainly admirable and he is to be commended for writing his book in retirement, based on over fourteen hundred pages of detailed notes he made since the accident."
--ISIS
101: 2
"A "must-read" book for anyone who wants to become familiar with the Challenger accident and the subsequent recovery effort to return the space shuttle to flight."
--Rocket Reviews