38 years ago this morning, #NASA Shuttle mission STS-51L launched Challenger at 11:38 AM EST with its crew of seven. 73 seconds later, its external tank failed, causing a rupture that destroyed Challenger and the crew.
This was the local coverage in Los Angeles that night, the 11 PM PST newscast.
This is a documentary about Christa McAuliffe, the "Teacher in Space," lost aboard Challenger 38 years ago today.
Barbara Morgan was the backup to Christa McAuliffe in the Teacher in Space program. Her flight was postponed for years; she finally qualified as a Mission Specialist, but her flight as postponed again by the loss of Columbia in 2003. She finally flew in 2007.
I worked with Barb many times over the years. If you need inspiration, you'll find it in Barb's life story.
This is #CNN live coverage of the STS-51L Challenger launch, January 28, 1986, starting at 11:00 AM EST. If you want to fast-forward to the launch, go to the 11:38 AM mark (0:38 minutes in the video).
So what caused the Challenger accident?
When I was asked, my response was always, "Bad management."
The technical cause was that the rubbery O-rings connecting the Solid Rocket Booster segments lost their elasticity in cold weather. It was a known phenomeon. #NASA was warned, but management ignored the problem. Rather than proving it was safe, they told the contractor to prove it would fail, otherwise certify the launch. (1/x)
One of the O-rings failed at ignition, on the lower right-side SRB. A gap allowed flame to burn against the mount holding the SRB to the orange External Tank.
At about T+73 seconds, the mount failed. The SRB swung into the top of the ET, causing it to rupture. The "explosion" was actually liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen coming together in an instant fireball.
Had management listened to the contractor's engineers, they wouldn't have launched that day. (2/x)
Let's also debunk the urban myth that President Reagan somehow caused this by demanding Challenger launch for his State of the Union address.
There is ZERO evidence of that. No one has produced a piece of paper or a witness with any evidence of that. ALL the evidence points to a telecon #NASA Marshall executives had with Thiokol exectuives. The recording proves NASA pressured Thiokol into approving the launch. No NASA executive has ever said the White House pressured them to launch. (3/3)
I dug out of the archives a half-hour documentary video #NASA released detailing the findings of the Challenger accident investigation.
Since understanding the causes is a bit technical, this is an excellent way to explain it.
It's now on my Space SPAN YouTube channel.
The front page of the #FloridaToday special edition, the evening of January 28, 1986.
The morning after ... The front page of local newspapers, 38 years ago this morning, after the Challenger accident.
@WordsmithFL
I graduated from college a month before. I drove down to KSC the morning before, but the launch was scrubbed. That morning I sent a dozen resumes to companies supporting KSC. I was going to drive down again but I thought it was too cold to launch. I watched from Daytona Beach.
😱
@teengee I can only imagine the horror of seeing it live.
The closest I came during my #KSCVC years was when SpaceX CRS-7 blew up. That was a cargo Dragon. I was doing local launch commentary for the guests when it blew up at about T+2:30, which was right around the time of upper stage separation.
I couldn't say anything, but I was pretty sure what had happened. A couple photographers came up to tell me they saw it go kaboom.
@WordsmithFL
I remember that one and the Falcon 9 that blew one the pad.
@teengee Probably the best video of the AMOS-6 anomaly is this one on the USLaunchReport YouTube channel:
@WordsmithFL
My job allows me access to the raw SpaceX videos.
@teengee Okay, you win. 😊
Two of the local TV stations had helicopter coverage. This is WESH Channel 2.
@WordsmithFL
We were processing OSIRIS-REx at CX-41. The people at -41 said the VIF shook. I watched the fire from the O&C.
@teengee Yikes ... I think we'd have to go back to the 1950s to find an incident where a rocket blew up on the pad.
@WordsmithFL
I think you are correct.
There were a couple of close calls.
A Delta II rained burning solid propellant down on SLC-17 in the 90's and the Titan IV out of Vandenberg before that.
@teengee If you haven't seen it, this is the only known complete video of the Delta II kaboom. I found it a few years ago in the Cape museum's archives and digitized it for their YouTube channel.
@WordsmithFL
I have seen it. pretty amazing.
I heard stories from people who were in the blockhouse and had cars burned to the point where coins in their ashtray fused into a nugget.
I was inside Calvary Chapel on SR3 when the explosion occurred. The shock wave lifted ceiling tiles inside the building.
@teengee My wife attends that church. We live in Sunset Lakes across the street.
@teengee We live in north Merritt Island. I was sick in bed with the flu, so out of it that I didn't even hear it. Suddenly my phone started buzzing with all the news alerts. I got up, turned on the TV, and started thinking, "Oh crap, oh crap ..."
My #KSCVC colleagues said the place really shook. I can only imagine what the guests thought.