Twenty-five years ago on a cold January morning at Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic coast of Florida one of America’s Space Program’s greatest and most complex engineering feats was about to go into space with seven brave souls. Among those seven souls, the first teacher to head into space. The clock ticked until T-minus six seconds; the great Space Shuttle Challenger’s main engines ignited and six seconds later, the Solid Rocket Boosters(SRBs) unleashed their powerful thrust, allowing Challenger to lift off the launch pad at 11:38:03 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 28 January 1986. As the shuttle began to pass over the Atlantic rising higher and higher into the sky, a plume of flame appeared between the right-hand SRB and the External Tank (ET). The flames grew, burning through the strut connecting the SRB to the ET and into the ET’s lower, liquid hydrogen tank. As the bottom end of the lower tank blew off, thrusting the lower tank into the upper, liquid oxygen filled tank, the top of the right-hand SRB rotates into the ET’s intertank structure dramatically increasing aerodynamic forces. Those forces sealed Challenger’s fate, tearing the orbiter and the ET apart at 11:39:06 AM EST.
It is unknown when the seven brave travelers; Ellison Onizuka, Michael Smith, Gregory Jarvis, Francis "Dick" Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, and Christa McAuliffe on board perished. The crew cabin survived the break-up but was destroyed when it hit the ocean two minutes later at 200 miles per hour. If any of them were alive after the break-up they were killed when the cabin slammed into the ocean. The remains of the crew would be recovered in early March and those that could be identified were returned to their families. The remains that could not be identified were buried together on 20 May 1986 at the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington, DC.
Officially known as the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, the Rogers Commission investigated the accident that claimed the lives of the seven crew members. In the commission’s report, published 9 June 1986, the commission determined that the loss of Challenger was caused by the failure of the two rubber gaskets, known as O-rings, at the joints of the SRBs to seal in the hot pressurized gases burning in the right-hand SRB allowing the gases to escape, burn through the ET and ultimately destroying the Shuttle. The commission also determined that contributing causes of the accident included NASA & Morton Thiokol’s (manufacturer of the SRBs) failure to fully address the design flaws in the O-rings, which the two organizations had been aware of since 1977, NASA’s decision-making process in launching the shuttle in such abnormally cold conditions and NASA’s overall cultural organization.
NASA would follow through with some of the commission’s recommendations, particularly those regarding the redesign and re-engineering of the O-rings for the SRBs. The O-ring redesign and other changes to the Space Shuttle allowed it to return to space after more than a two and a half year absence in 1988. However, some of the “culture” and “decision-making” recommendations made by the commission were either partially followed through or not at all.
The knowledge-seeking spirit of Challenger’s crew lives on through the Challenger Center for Space Science Education founded by the families of the crew in April 1986. The Challenger Center is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes education in general and education in science and technology specifically through its’ network of Challenger Learning Centers spread across the globe. The members of the crew have been honored in numerous ways since the tragedy. Amongst these honors, all seven, known as the Challenger 7, were awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2003 by President George W. Bush.
Today is a day of remembrance and reflection. A day in which all citizens of our world should take a moment to remember and reflect not just on the crew of Challenger, but on the crews of Apollo 1 and Columbia as well. The men and women of these spacecraft made the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of expanding our knowledge and exploration of the final frontier. To paraphrase Dr. Leonard McCoy in Star Trek II; ‘They really aren’t dead. As long as we remember them.’
Live Long and Prosper.
