Passing of An American Original: My Father
Thursday, February 11th, 2010Richard E. COOK
NEWPORT NEWS – Mr. Richard Edward Cook, of Newport News, passed away at 4:40 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010, at Riverside Hospital after a short illness. He was 86 years old.
Mr. Cook was born on Jan. 7, 1924, in Oklahoma City, Okla. His mother was Carolyn Hill of Kingfisher, Okla., and his father [...]


In January 1986 Cook became the first NASA official to testify publicly on the space agency's prior knowledge of flaws in the solid rocket booster O-ring joints that destroyed Challenger and took the lives of its seven astronauts. He told his story in the book Challenger Revealed, published in 2007. Publisher's Weekly wrote of the book: "Easily the most informative and important book on the disaster."
