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Thirty years ago, the first tragedy of NASA's Space Shuttle program took the lives of it's brave crew, including the first civilian astronaut, 'teacher in space' Christa McAuliffe.
The accident was blamed on not following launch guidelines on cold weather launches, resulting in the failure of O-ring seals and breakup of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and the explosion of the main liquid hydrogen tank that tore the Challenger apart shortly into liftoff at the 'throttle up' (go to full thrust).
It is believed that the cabin of the vehicle was thrown free of the shuttle with the crew surviving at that point but that there was no escape mechanism and if any of the crew members were conscious they suffered a horrendous descent experience until impact in the ocean, which was impossible to survive. When the cabin was recovered they did find some of the escape gear had been activated, suggesting that they had survived to some point but could not escape.
The tragedy halted the program for 32 months while redesigned boosters and other changes to the vehicle were made. No official missions were scheduled before a test flight was conducted.
The problem did not reoccur, however debris from a later launch damaged the bottom of the Columbia in 2003 and that damage resulted in the re-entry breakup and loss of it's crew as well, which was about the end of the Space Shuttle program itself.
The crew was:
Francis R. 'Dick' Scobee, Commander
Michael J. Smith, Pilot
Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist
Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist
Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist
Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist
Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist
May God continue to keep them in his grace and care.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster
The accident was blamed on not following launch guidelines on cold weather launches, resulting in the failure of O-ring seals and breakup of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and the explosion of the main liquid hydrogen tank that tore the Challenger apart shortly into liftoff at the 'throttle up' (go to full thrust).
It is believed that the cabin of the vehicle was thrown free of the shuttle with the crew surviving at that point but that there was no escape mechanism and if any of the crew members were conscious they suffered a horrendous descent experience until impact in the ocean, which was impossible to survive. When the cabin was recovered they did find some of the escape gear had been activated, suggesting that they had survived to some point but could not escape.
The tragedy halted the program for 32 months while redesigned boosters and other changes to the vehicle were made. No official missions were scheduled before a test flight was conducted.
The problem did not reoccur, however debris from a later launch damaged the bottom of the Columbia in 2003 and that damage resulted in the re-entry breakup and loss of it's crew as well, which was about the end of the Space Shuttle program itself.
The crew was:
Francis R. 'Dick' Scobee, Commander
Michael J. Smith, Pilot
Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist
Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist
Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist
Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist
Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist
May God continue to keep them in his grace and care.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster
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