At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger‘s launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.
Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle broke up in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.
In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled the world’s first reusable manned spacecraft, the Enterprise. Five years later, space flights of the shuttle began when Columbia traveled into space on a 54-hour mission. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and carried out various scientific experiments. The Challenger disaster was the first major shuttle accident.
In the aftermath of the disaster, President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The investigation determined that the disaster was caused by the failure of an “O-ring” seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive loss. As a result, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.
In September 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the successful launching of the Discovery. Since then, the space shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, such as the repair and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction of the International Space Station.
On February 1, 2003, a second space-shuttle disaster rocked the United States when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry of the Earth’s atmosphere. All aboard were killed. Despite fears that the problems that downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily addressed, space-shuttle flights resumed on July 26, 2005, when Discovery was again put into orbit.
The Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31, 2011 after its final mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
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Wasn’t there a special role of Richard Feynman in the investigation? Nothing to mention here??
Need
Another
Seven
Astronauts!
……….
Did you know all seven astronauts had blue eyes? Yep…half blew north, the other half blew south.
All the other school teachers in uSA were extremely jealous until 11:39:13 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986.
(11:38+73 seconds)
All the astronauts had toast for breakfast so did the sharks
I see what you did there.
you just never know where one of these threads will lead to,do you?
That was the perfect picture of the corruption and incompetence of our government. I wasn’t smart enough to catch on for many years and now there are far too many examples like this that I can’t unsee.
Hubris, arrogance, and government contract dollars.
NASA needed a fresh infusion of money.
Why? Let the private sector figure it out. Right now, from a technical standpoint, Musk is decades ahead of NASA. Mostly because NASA, being a socialist owned and operated big-failure government disaster zone for money laundering, has done nothing in 40 years, other than launder taxpayer money.
If NASA had better intelligence on the Soviet Union back in the 1960s, there would have been no need to waste billions on Saturn/Apollo and end up killing 3 men in the Apollo I disaster. Why? Because the head of Soviet rocket design started taking a dirt nap early, most likely from being tortured by Stalin’s thugs a few decades earlier. Without him, the entire Soviet Moon program quickly fell apart because none of the underlings had the intelligence required to make the N1 function properly.
Saturn/Apollo was built with the same mentality as everything during the Cold War. Just throw more taxpayer money and the problem. If that doesn’t work, throw more money at it. Don’t waste time trying to figure out if there is a better way to achieve the same goal at a lower cost. That is the biggest reason no more Saturn rockets will ever be built, despite their 100% reliability.
What’s really weird is how most of them went on to live full, enriching lives after this tragedy.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Eluminate/alive-well-1986-challenger-crew
Another garbage piece. Zero evidence that can be backed up with reality-based facts is presented. All of it is conjecture and wishful-thinking. Which is typical of the believers in the Snowglobe Universe Flat Earth because their book of fairy tales told them so.
👩🚀Alive and Well?!..1986 Challenger Crew🚀*
Dec 17, 2021
16 mins read
“How long has the government been living life on two layers?
Some would say that has not been the case ever,
while others might hint since it’s creation. No matter the case the years 1977 and 1986 have been thrust upon me. They continue to come into my lane and major things from those years keep landing in my lap. The Challenger being one of them.”
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Eluminate/alive-well-1986-challenger-crew
* didn’t read other than what Ya See. If i gave a crap? Would see what snopes & the rest of the dopes had ta say 🤣
Where was it Connecticut? That barry soetoro’s S.S # indicated a ‘connection’.
Did they waffle outta that finally?
I was working in Florida. As soon as the news hit I went outside and could still see that bifurcated smoke trail.