Anyone who lived through the ’80s remembers the Challenger tragedy. It was a moment that put NASA on the spotlight. There were so many questions to be asked that even today, people still ask about it.
Astronauts know the risks all too well, and even with all the training, meetings, and briefing, a launch into space will always contain high risks. The world will never forget the 7 crew members who passed on January 28, 1986: Francis “Dick” Scobee, Mike Smith, Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ron McNair, Greg Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
The Challenger tragedy reminds us of the many dangers of exploration as well as the limits of human ambition. Read on for more details of this terrible moment in human history.
1. An engineer made the prediction
The Challenger’s launch was scheduled to take place in very cold weather.
The managers and NASA overruled warnings, causing engineer Bob Eberling to tell his wife, “It’s going to blow up.”
“NASA ruled the launch,” Eberling explained 30 years later. “They had their mind set on going up and proving to the world they were right and they knew what they were doing. But they didn’t.”
2. The pilot’s expression was the last recording
It proved that the crew was aware of something going wrong with the launch before the explosion.
3. School children were watching for teacher Christa McAuliffe
Christa McAuliffe was a 37-year-old social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire. She was a civilian chosen as NASA’s first educator in space thanks to the Teacher in Space Project. The aim was to create publicity and inspire kids to reach for the stars.
McAuliffe was supposed to teach a few lessons in space.
CNN showed the launch “live” with a slight tape-delay, but NASA provided schools with a live satellite feed. McAuliffe’s class saw the tragedy unfold in real time.
4. The Challenger in popular culture
The Challenger explosion inspired many artists to create songs, shows, and sculptures to memorialize it. The 1986 Rendez-vous Houston concert saw musician Jean Michel Jarre, a friend of crew member McNair, play a saxophone solo that McNair was going to play in flight. It was to be the first professionally produced track recorded in space.
Musicians like John Denver, Adam Young, Beyonce, and Frank Turner wrote songs, using samples from the audio of the event in their tracks as well.
Several TV shows dedicated episodes to the crew, even writing the tragedy into the script, like Punky Brewster and Star Trek.
5. Reagan delayed his State Of The Union to address the nation
President Reagan’s State of the Union was to take place on the evening of January 28, but he chose to update his country with a televised speech from the Oval Office just six hours after the disaster. The speech was hailed as one of Reagan’s finest, It was written by Peggy Noonan, who also wrote speeches for George HW Bush.
“I kind of figured the entire nation had seen an auto accident, you know?” Noonan explained 30 years later. “The president is going to have to do a speech that is aimed at those who are 8-years-old, and those who are 18, and those who are 80 without patronizing anybody.”
6. Up until 2010, CNN’s broadcast was the only footage of the explosion
Thanks to teacher McAuliffe, media coverage was plenty. CNN’s live broadcast was the most memorable footage of the event, being the only footage until 2010. NASA and the federal government eventually declassified several civilian videos of the event.
There are seven known videos of the explosion. Footage from civilians and at least one come from a professional filmmaker. Some of these videos were recorded more than 50 miles away in Orlando, FL.
7. Remnants of the shuttle washed ashore 10 years later
Long after official investigations ceased, debris still surfaced on the Florida coast. In December 1996, around 11 years after the explosion, beach goers discovered two barnacle-covered pieces of the shuttle at Cocoa Beach just 20 miles from the Kennedy Space Center.
“This piece, structurally, is the complete inboard elevon of the left wing, and that’s like eight feet on one end by six feet on the other by 14 feet long,” said NASA’s Ron Phelps of the larger component. “So it’s a big piece, it weighed several hundred pounds. We had to use a front-end loader to actually pick it up and move it off the beach.”
8. One engineer still blames himself
In a 2016 interview, Bob Eberling shared that he still experienced grief over the explosion. He tried to tell NASA officials that the launch was not going to go well, but he was overruled so he went along with the plans.
He retired soon after and fell into a deep depression. “I could have done more,” he told NPR. “I should have done more.”
Eberling found peace in church but 30 years on, he still remembered the victims and the managers who refused to listen. He believes he should have not been there, or at least did something more to stop the launch.
“I think that was one of the mistakes that God made,” Ebeling said. “He shouldn’t have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I’m gonna ask him, ‘Why me. You picked a loser.’ ”
9. The shuttle completed 9 successful missions before the disaster
The Challenger shuttle was built in 1975 as a test vehicle for the space shuttle program. It was originally called STA-099, spending almost an entire year of vibration testing in a hydraulic rig. It was in 1979 when NASA ordered the transformation from test vessel to actual spacecraft.
It first launched in 1983, with the mission that featured the first spacewalk of the Space Shuttle Program. The Challenger transported the first female American astronaut, Sally Ride, and the first African American astronaut, Guion Bluford, in to space.
10. It took 22 years before a civilian was able to fly into space
Christa McAuliffe became part of NASA’s initiative to include civilians on missions. The disaster had them stopping all plans for civilian spaceflight. It took 22 years before Barbara Morgan joined the Endeavour in 2007.
Morgan was actually McAuliffe’s backup for the Challenger mission. She’s also a teacher who specialized in English and Social Studies.
11. The crew was NASA’s first in-flight fatalities
On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 astronauts Roger Chaffee, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, and Edward White passed in a fire during training, but that took place on a ground test at Cape Kennedy.
12. The wreckage was sealed in missile silos
The silos are known as Complex 31 and 32 and remain sealed, but they are meant to act as storage sites, not memorials.
13. Neil Armstrong took part in the investigation
The Challenger explosion alerted everyone to the dangers of space travel much more than the Apollo 1 tragedy of 1967. It was the first live televised disaster in the history of space exploration causing Ronald Reagan to form the Rogers Commission to investigate and determine the cause.
Apollo 11 commander Neil Amrstrong acted as vice chairman of the investigative committee which included Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.
14. The space program stalled for 3 years
It worked. There were no incidents until 2003, when the Columbia burned up during reentry. But the Columbia’s crash happened for different reasons. The safety precautions employed after the Challenger incident worked owing to NASA’s research.
15. NASA violated mission rules for the launch
“Violating a couple of mission rules was the primary cause of the Challenger accident,” wrote Ken Iliff, a former Chief Scientist at NASA.
There were speculations that they went through with the launch because of the aggressiveness of the space program. The Reagan Administration wanted to show everyone that the United States could fly regularly and successfully.
16. Cold weather played a crucial role
17. Big Bird of Sesame Street almost joined the crew
NASA’s public relations effort to capture the attention of children was what led to schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe’s participation in the doomed mission.
Spinney discussed the matter for decades. NASA released an official statement in 2015, confirming, “A review of past documentation shows there were initial conversations with Sesame Street regarding their potential participation on a Challenger flight, but that plan was never approved.”
18. A broken seal spelled disaster
The solid-fuel strap-on boosters were undamaged by the explosion.
19. A soccer ball went into space
The ball stayed there for three decades, until Shane Kimbrough, another astronaut asked the school if any particular items could accompany him on a mission to the International Space Station. The school gave the ball and Kimbrough tweeted a photo of it in space floating in zero gravity.
20. Salvage crews found remains
Identified remains were given to their families. Unidentified ones were buried in a monument at Arlington National Cemetery.
21. They were alive as they plummeted back down
There’s enough evidence to suggest this as several astronauts’ personal emergency air packs were activated.
22. Robin Williams recorded a personal message for the crew of the next flight
He took part in “astronaut wake-up songs” which usually come from friends and family.
William’s message was a riff from the movie. He told crew members “Houston’s great, but give me that zero-G!”
He even provided riffing specifically designed to make the astronauts laugh.
23. More facts about The Challenger disaster
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