Their investigation revealed that the O-ring seal on Challenger’s solid rocket booster, which had become brittle in the cold temperatures, failed. Headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, the commission included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. Shortly after the disaster, President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. READ MORE: Challenger Explosion: How Groupthink and Other Causes Led to the Tragedy Rogers Commission Within seconds, the spacecraft broke apart and plunged into the ocean, killing its entire crew, traumatizing the nation and throwing NASA’s shuttle program into turmoil. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including the families of McAuliffe and the other astronauts on board, stared in disbelief as the shuttle broke up in a plume of smoke and fire. However, these warnings went unheeded, and at 11:39 a.m. The morning of January 28 was unusually cold, and engineers warned their superiors that certain components-particularly the rubber O-rings that sealed the joints of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters-were vulnerable to failure at low temperatures. The mission’s launch from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was delayed for six days due to weather and technical problems. READ MORE: Big Bird Nearly Rode on the Disastrous Challenger Mission Challenger Disaster After undergoing months of training, she was set to become the first ordinary American citizen to travel into space. That year, it was scheduled to launch on January 22 carrying a seven-member crew that included Christa McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies instructor from New Hampshire who had earned a spot on the mission through NASA’s Teacher in Space Program. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and carried out various scientific experiments.ĭid you know? After "Teacher in Space" Christa McAuliffe was killed during the 1986 Challenger disaster, her backup, a former math teacher named Barbara Morgan, served as a mission specialist during a 2007 flight of the shuttle Endeavor.Ĭhallenger, NASA’s second space shuttle to enter service, embarked on its maiden voyage on April 4, 1983, and made a total of nine voyages prior to 1986. When the mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and its main engines, the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled the world’s first reusable manned spacecraft, known as the space shuttle.įive years later, flights began when the space shuttle Columbia embarked on a 54-hour mission.
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