Episode Details

NASA whistleblower Richard Cook is the author of Challenger Revealed: An Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age. After the much-ballyhooed “teacher-in-space” Challenger space shuttle blew up, killing all crew members, in January, 1986, Cook spearheaded the partial unraveling of the coverup by feeding inside information and documents to journalists. Giving the lie to NASA propaganda, Cook showed that the lethal problem with the O-rings was common knowledge at NASA, including at its highest echelons. The Challenger obviously never should have flown in such cold conditions, not only due to the O-ring problem but also because of potential damage from ice. But political pressure from the top of the Reagan Administration—and “customer” pressure from the Star-Wars-addled military—overrode common sense and standard operating procedure. The result was a shocking national tragedy, followed by a coverup featuring widespread perjury and obstruction of justice. The truth (“Reagan murdered those astronauts by insisting on an unsafe launch so he could talk to the ‘teacher-in-space’ during his State of the Union speech”) was so toxic that just about everyone eventually fell in line with the coverup.

I sent Richard some questions in advance of the interview, and he offered tentative answers:Here are some questions (sorry about all the “conspiracy” stuff, but that’s my bailiwick).

In what ways was the Challenger disaster emblematic of the creeping corruption of the 1980s? Or should we describe it as a coup d’etat, since Reagan seems to have been installed by hyper-militaristic Deep State players who cut a deal with Iranians to keep the US hostages imprisoned, throwing the election to Reagan-Bush?

I worked in the Jimmy Carter White House at the time of the Reagan takeover. It was definitely a Deep State coup–no question about that at all. But it was also part of a continuity that began with the takeover of U.S. foreign policy by the CIA and military in the 1950s, continued with their assassination of the Kennedys in the 1960s, then on through the Reagan Revolution, the first Iraq war, 9/11, and all that has happened since then. Obama was obviously a CIA asset, as was Trump. It’s a joke to call the US a democracy with two parties that hate each other being egged on by a controlled media while the military prepares for the next phase of endless war.

You mention Barbara Honegger in connection with the October Surprise coup against Carter. Have you followed her career as a 9/11-anthrax investigator, and if so, what do you think of her work?

I don’t know anything about Barbara Honegger except what is in my book.

How was the Challenger explosion both a result of plans for the weaponization of space, and then a roadblock in those plans?

Challenger can’t be understood at all without focusing on the weaponization of space. We’ll need to cover that in detail.

Are you familiar with David Ray Griffin’s view that 9/11 was among other things a pretext to ramp up the weaponization of space, and if so, do you agree?

Not familiar with David Ray Griffin’s argument about a connection between 9/11 and weaponization of space. However, one purpose of 9/11 was certainly a false flag event to advance the Deep State agenda. Weaponization of space is a key part of that agenda. The military still favors a first strike on Russia and now China. Weaponization of space has always been a search for how to do that.

NASA as described in your book does not seem competent enough to have pulled off the Apollo moon landings and gotten all the astronauts back alive. Many of my listeners, including one former NASA engineer, tend to agree with the perspective expressed in this article: 

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