The Challenger Disaster

The U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger accident is probably the most well known and frightening space related accident. It happened during he freezing morning of January 28, 1986 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was five days after it was scheduled to launch, due to bad weather. This was the 10^th launch of the Challenger.. At 11:30 AM the Challenger took off from the launch pad. Tragically, 73 seconds into flight the Challenger was engulfed in a giant fireball, killing all 7 crewmembers, including a teacher, Sharon Christa McAuliffe.

This launch of the Challenger was highly publicized because it was to be the first time a civilian teacher was going to go into space. Her name was Sharon Christa McAuliffe. She was going to teach lessons on TV while in space. When the Challenger exploded it must have been a horrible shock if you were watching. The students who were taught by her were devastated. And millions of students across the U.S. watched the explosion on TV.

Why?

Why? Why would a highly successful U.S. shuttle just explode in mid air during take off for no apparent reason? The answer may not have been much of a mechanical problem. It was more of a temperature problem. The day of the launch the launch pad was 15 degrees cooler than any other launch done by NASA. Some strange things happened to the shuttle in the air before it exploded. After launch, black puffs of smoke were coming from the right SRB (Solid Rocket Booster). A SRB basically turns the fuel into a controlled explosion. The smoke suggested that a rubber O-ring was burning. An O-ring makes sure that no gasses escape from the SRB. The puffs of smoke ended 2.7 seconds into the flight. Then, 58.8 seconds into the flight a small glowing flame was seen on the right SRB. At 59.3 seconds into the flight the flame was getting bigger, hotter, and brighter. As the flame got hotter, it loosened the SRBs connection with the main fuel tank. This eventually weakened it so much that the SRB broke off and collided with the fuel tank, creating a humongous fireball that engulfed the Challenger, resulting in its destruction. Strangely, the two SRBs survived the explosion. One SRB had accidentally opened its parachute and detached from it. The people watching thought it was the crew’s emergency escape system. Little did they know, there as no such thing on the shuttle. Later the

SRBs were remotely detonated by mission control, so they wouldn’t cause any harm to people on land.

The space program was nearly shut down, and it lost a lot of funding and support because of this tragedy. Nevertheless NASA recovered and is continuing its exploration of space. The Challenger disaster helps us remember there are bound to be disasters in our exploration of space.