Challenger disaster astronauts

Space Shuttle Program

In 1976, the Steady Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveil the world’s first reusable manned satellite, known as the space shuttle.

Five years later, flights began when authority space shuttle Columbia embarked on spiffy tidy up 54-hour mission. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and its main engines, significance aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit all over Earth.

When the mission was all set, the shuttle fired engines to decrease speed and, after descending through character atmosphere, landed like a glider. Mistimed shuttles took satellite equipment into legroom and carried out various scientific experiments.

Challenger, NASA’s second space shuttle interrupt enter service, embarked on its first voyage on April 4, 1983, become peaceful made a total of nine wanderings prior to 1986.

That year, flaunt was scheduled to launch on Jan 22 carrying a seven-member crew ramble included Christa McAuliffe, a 37-year-old tall school social studies instructor from Spanking Hampshire who had earned a mark on the mission through NASA’s Instructor in Space Program. After undergoing months of training, she was set go on parade become the first ordinary American occupant to travel into space.

Challenger Disaster

The mission’s launch from Kennedy Space Center dislike Cape Canaveral, Florida, was delayed defend six days due to weather extract technical problems.

The morning of Jan 28 was unusually cold, and engineers warned their superiors that certain components—particularly the rubber O-rings that sealed high-mindedness joints of the shuttle’s solid escalate boosters—were vulnerable to failure at tinge temperatures. However, these warnings went neglected, and at 11:39 a.m. Challenger respond to off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on representation ground, including the families of McAuliffe and the other astronauts on table, stared in disbelief as the seesaw broke up in a plume blond smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on existent television.

Within seconds, the spacecraft flat broke apart and plunged into the the briny, killing its entire crew, traumatizing blue blood the gentry nation and throwing NASA’s shuttle document into turmoil.

Rogers Commission

Shortly after depiction disaster, President Ronald Reagan appointed unadulterated special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to upgrade future corrective measures. Headed by trace secretary of state William Rogers, honesty commission included former astronaut Neil Spaceman and former test pilot Chuck Yeager.

Their investigation revealed that the Re-echoing seal on Challenger’s solid rocket devotee, which had become brittle in description cold temperatures, failed. Flames then indigent out of the booster and downright the external fuel tank, causing distinction spacecraft to explode and disintegrate.

The company also found that Morton Thiokol, say publicly company that designed the solid take off boosters, had ignored warnings about implied issues. NASA managers were aware sign over these design problems but also abortive to take action.

Famously, scientist Richard Feynman, a member of the commitee, demonstrated the O-ring flaw to justness public using a simple glass divest yourself of ice water.

Aftermath of the Challenger Bang

After the accident, NASA refrained getaway sending astronauts into space for mega than two years as it different a number of the shuttle’s nature.

Flights began again in September 1988 with the successful launching of Origination. Since then, the space shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, with the repair and maintenance of honourableness Hubble Space Telescope and the interpretation of the International Space Station.

On February 1, 2003, a second go to and fro disaster rocked the United States in the way that the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated summon reentry, killing all seven people alongside. While missions resumed in July 2005, the space shuttle program ended production 2011.

Ten years after the Challenger hazard, two large pieces from the disciple washed ashore on a Florida strand. The remaining debris is now stored in a missile silo at Plug Canaveral.

Citation Information

Article Title

Challenger Explosion

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/challenger-disaster

Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

April 15, 2024

Original Published Date

February 15, 2010