The Challenger Space Craft exploded on January 28, 1986, 73 seconds after launch. On board were seven crew members: Michael J. Smith, the pilot, Judy A Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Ronald E. McNair, Mission Specialists, Gregory B. Jarvis, Payload Specialist, Francis R. Scobee, Commander, and, perhaps most well remembered in the public eye, S. Christa McAuliffe, a civilian teacher. McAuliffe was NASA's choice for the Teacher in Space project, the mission of which was to deliver space-science lessons from orbit through a satellite. Her junior high age students, family, and friends were watching as she left Earth for the first, and, tragically, last time. For quite a while, no one was really sure what happened that day. Was it a construction error? What it the fault of the ground crew? The current president ordered a special commission to investigate the matter, come up with an answer to these questions, and recommend procedures for future use designed to prevent another such disaster. Eventually, all the debris was retrieved, all the facts were in, and the real answer surfaced. A little more than half of a second into the launch, smoke was spotted (by a camera) coming from the aft field joint. In the next two seconds or so, there were eight more such smoke streams. All came from the same joint. This smoke told investigators that the sealing on the joint was not fully operative. Further analysis of the smoke picture indicated that it was a combination of joint insulation, grease, and rubber O-rings. These things burned because of the hot gases they were exposed to. Due to weather conditions (windy and 15 degrees below the temperature such a launch had before been tried at), the steering system of the Solid Rocket Boosters was overly active. A flame was spotted coming from the right Solid Rocket Booster near the aft field joint at 58.788 seconds. This flame had grown to a substantial jet by 59.262 seconds. A measure of the pressure differences in the right and left boosters verified that the field joint had a leak in it. Between this time and about 73 seconds into the flight, the growing flame mixed with hydrogen and a booster failed, breaking up the craft into pieces. There was an explosion. All that was left fell to Earth. No one survived. This terrible accident has had a lasting effect on both the public and private sector. NASA will feel (and has felt) its repercussions every time they ask for government funding (the government provides most of the money the space program needs to continue its explorations) or private monies. Perhaps more, acutely, they will feel it whenever they see a shuttle launch or design a craft, or see the memorials dedicated to the Challenger crew. Certain groups, namely those most closely connected to the astronauts who perished and to the space program itself, have established centers for learning, like the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence. These places seek to teach the United States community about Challenger and space in general. Many web sites dedicated to this subject are available online. They range in content from very detailed, official reports to easy-to-understand sites detailing the background of the shuttle itself.But for the casual surfer who doesn't want to wade through endless pages of confusing text, one site is particularly comprehensive. (may occasionally be down)
Sunday, November 15, 1998 3:39:28 PM From: John P. Donaldson,jdonaldson@challenger.org,Internet Subject: website correction To: Steve Bergen-fac I noticed you have a link to our website and the link points to an invalid page. The link I am speaking of is located on this webpage: http://www.noblesweb.org/cp4/DAEaton.html The text that is linked is: Memorial Patch for the Challenger Space Mission as well as a Picture of the Crew and the invalid like is: http://www.challenger.org/511.html The link should read: http://www.challenger.org/51l.html You'll notice the only difference is in the number 51, that's an L next to the number 51, not the number 511. Thank's for including a link to our site and I would appreciate this correction. Thanks, John ============================================ John Donaldson Webmaster Challenger Center for Space Science Education www.challenger.org jdonaldson@challenger.org ============================================