Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

[ Up ]

Fuel tank…check! Oil tank…check! Oxygen tank…check! Five-point seatbelt…check! Helmets on…check!

Astronauts, are you ready for takeoff?

Ready as ever!

In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, rocket ignited. We have liftoff!

The rocket has been in the air for 70 seconds, 71, 72, 73, 7…oh my dear lord what has happened? Did it explode? Did it catch on fire?

On board the Challenger was the first school teacher ever sent into space. NASA had a contest for the perfect teacher to join the mission, and Christa McAuliffe was the teacher who won.

Pressure

NASA was under a lot of pressure to launch the Challenger in time so it would not delay other shuttle launches scheduled for later in the year. The launch of two space probes, Ulysses and Galileo, had delayed the Challenger launch several times. After the two probes were finally launched, the Challenger itself had technical problems, delaying it even more. Even when the Challenger was launched, NASA was aware it had a few problems, but NASA knew they had those same problems before with other spacecraft and nothing went wrong.

The media also put a lot of pressure on NASA by criticizing NASA for all of its delays. This was because the launch would be broadcast on live television. Schools all over the United States were planning to watch the launch because there was a teacher being sent into space.

What NASA Wanted to Show the World

In this mission, there were a lot of things NASA wanted to show the world including:

Flying space could become an everyday thing for a regular (not-trained) person by sending a teacher into space.
Show off some of their high-tech machinery so people would support NASA’s missions. They would do this when they were giving the televised lessons while showing some of the equipment and telling what astronauts used it for.
Show kids the fun of being an astronaut so they would get more interested in space by having the winning teacher, Christa McAuliffe, teach different lessons from space. She would have been on the spacecraft giving the lessons, having NASA broadcast them to schools around the world. The first lesson would be "The Ultimate Field Trip," showing kids how astronauts live and work in space. The second lesson would be "Space: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going." This lesson would show kids what NASA is planning to do in the future with space, especially the manned space station.

Information NASA Wanted to Gather

The Challenger was carrying several payloads into space including:

The Spartan-Halley Science Package which was supposed to study Halley’s comet and take pictures of it. It was the biggest, most high tech communication station ever built.
The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, which was supposed to control all spy satellites orbiting Earth.

Television stations planned to broadcast the launch of the payloads live.

What Happened to the Challenger

Most people have heard the Challenger exploded, but many people don’t really understand how that happened. One of the pieces on the huge rocket boosters that lifts the shuttle into orbit did not work correctly. This piece was called an O-ring, and it was part of the shuttle’s right rocket booster. The O-ring is like a giant rubber washer, just like the washer in your sink faucet. Because it was very cold on the morning of the launch, the O-ring did not work correctly. It allowed hot gases to leak out of the rocket booster. Flames from inside the rocket booster shot out of the place where the O-ring was supposed to be. These flames burned a hole in the shuttle’s external fuel tank and caused the rocket booster to break off, creating an even bigger hole in the fuel tank. The fuels in the tank mixed and created a giant fireball, tearing apart the shuttle.

Reaction

All of the shuttles have been redesigned to prevent an accident like the Challenger disaster from ever happening again. The O-ring has been improved, and there is even a "crew bail-out system" where the shuttle can be landed quickly if there is a problem.

After the Challenger was destroyed, it changed the way people looked at NASA. NASA wanted people to support it, but instead of impressing the viewers, the Challenger disaster scared them. Also, NASA wanted to make sending regular people into space an everyday thing. Even though it has been 14 years since the shuttle disaster, NASA still has not attempted to send anyone that is not a trained astronaut into space.

[ Up ]

Space Exploration of the Past, Present, and Future
Bartlett Elementary School 2000