Challenger disaster 20th anniversary
January 28, 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, America's first true in-flight space disaster and an event that still haunts the collective memories of those who were around to experience it. My thoughts and prayers go out to the surviving family members and NASA personnel who were forever changed by this tragedy.
Challenger's January 28, 1986 mission was widely publicized because astronaut Christa McAuliffe (top row, 2nd from left in the crew photo) was a schoolteacher. Special closed-circuit television systems were installed in numerous schools so students could watch the liftoff.
After liftoff, a jet of flame shot horizontally from one of the Shuttle's solid fuel booster rockets, burning a hole in the craft's main liquid fuel tank.
78 seconds after liftoff, the main fuel tank exploded. The solid fuel booster rockets continued their ascent. The phrase "a major malfunction" became part of the popular American lexicon.
A special commission was ordered by President Reagan to investigate the incident and determine what went wrong. The commission found that the jet of flame was the result of a failed joint in the structure that held the multi-part solid booster rockets together. The commission also determined that the booster's manufacturer, Morton-Thiokol, was aware of the design flaw for years, and knew that the likelihood of joint failure increased in cold weather. Thiokol sent NASA several faxes during the days before the January 28 launch, and recommended "no launch" due to concerns over predictions of cold weather at the launch site.
NASA ultimately ignored the warnings, and pressured Thiokol to reconsider their recommendation. Thiokol conceded to NASA and retracted their "no launch" recommendation, citing inconclusive data. Physicist Richard P. Feynman, a member of the commission, performed yeoman's work when he dipped a rubber o-ring used in the solid rocket booster joint into a glass of ice water, proving to everyone on live television that the o-rings became stiff (and therefore ineffective) when they were cold.
Sadly, the trend toward "gradually decreasing strictness" noted by Richard P. Feynman in his appendix to the official presidential commission report on the Challenger disaster, was not addressed by NASA, and more lives were lost seventeen years later aboard the shuttle Columbia. It took a repeat of the same problem that doomed the Columbia (crumbling foam insulation on the Shuttle's main fuel tank) to finally ground the shuttle fleet last year.
Video of the Challenger explosion, juxtaposed with the re-entry disintegration of the Columbia, was used by videographer Chris Valentine to create this sobering presentation. It's worth your time to download and watch it. He also has a lot more about both Shuttle disasters here.
More:
NASA - Challenger STS 51-L Accident
Federation of American Scientists' Space Policy Project - The Challenger Accident
Space.about.com - Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Wikipedia - Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
MSNBC coverage, including "7 Myths About The Challenger Disaster"
President Ronald Reagan's Address To The Nation
The Rogers Commission Report on the Challenger Disaster, Wikipedia summary of the report
Richard P. Feynman's Appendix to the Rogers Commission Report
Summary of the work of Roger Boisjoly, aerospace engineer involved with Morton-Thiokol's effort to improve the solid rocket booster o-rings
Could the use of asbestos-containing putty in the solid rocket booster joints have prevented the Challenger disaster? No. And here's why.
My earlier posts (cited by Instapundit) on this summer's Shuttle shuttle mission and the controversy surrounding its foam fuel tank insulation are here and here.
Some of the graphics I used in this post came from here. Start at the linked slide and navigate forward.
Dr. Sanity, who was flight surgeon at NASA when the Challenger exploded, has a must-read piece.
Tracked back to WizBang Carnival of the Trackbacks. Welcome WizBang readers. And welcome Michelle Malkin readers. As always, thanks Michelle!
The blame for 14 dead astronauts can be laid at the feet of the earth religion (environmentalism). An aerospace engineer and former flight controller at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston blames the unneeded asbestos and CFC bans.
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2942
The human hatred at the core of the green ideology continues to kill millions every year from the DDT ban as well.
http://www.eco-imperialism.com/index.html
Posted by: Mike | January 29, 2006 at 01:16 AM