Posted on 01/28/2019 1:31:02 PM PST by SMGFan
Jan 28, 1985: I was one of the accident investigators. NASA knew there were serious problems but launched anyway. @NASA wanted publicity & the press was leaving after waiting a couple days. Well, they got their publicity. #Challenger #Challengeraccident
They spread astronauts and an Idaho grade school teacher Christa Macauliff all over the Ever Glads. This after they knew they were burning through two of three oring seals on the schuttle boosters. They were warned. It’s the money, to hell with the people.
I thought the accident happened because the O-Rings weren’t rated for the weather and that in the month prior to the launch the O-Ring was re-engineered to remove the offending chemical compound in the ring.
I remember that day.
My wife called me at work to tell me the Challenger had exploded on launch.
I thought she was kidding....................
He was investigating a year before the explosion?
Roger Boisjoly spoke up too, 33 years ago.
I remember too. A girl I thought didn’t know I existed suddenly came up to my desk and said “the rocket ship blew up!”
I was at work.
One of our I/T support people told me (erroneously) the shuttle had blown up on the pad.
At lunch, everyone was staring at the video at a downtown Macy’s store on the TV’s.
1986, not 1985!!!
One of those moments I know exactly where I was when I heard.
As I recall, two Morton Thiokol engineers were arguing against a launch as it was too cold outside.
I was in my car listening to music when the news came over the radio. The station had just got done playing “Russians” by Sting. For that reason, that song will forever remind me of the Challenger disaster.
That mission was doomed as soon as NASA started treating the shuttle program as little more than a multicultural passenger bus.
I remember Joan Rivers was subbing for Carson that night and she came out, dressed all in black, and said simply, “It’s been a bad day.”.......................
One of our I/T support people told me (erroneously) the shuttle had blown up on the pad.
...
The engineers who warned management that there was going to be an explosion thought it would be on the pad as soon as the solid rockets ignited.
They had burned through the o- rings on the SRB’s multiple times prior to that time. The only reason they didn’t have a catastrophe prior was because the cutting torch was never aimed at the LOX tank. They knew it would happen eventually but wanted to launch for the teacher.
Absolutely criminal.
I was at the local farm store gas station and they had a 12 inch TV mounted up in the corner of the room.
The first two of the three O-ring seals were failing regularly. They knew. I walked into my living room off a graveyard shift. Turned on a tv and watched the rerun of the explosion of Challenger. Schools all over Idaho had the tv’s on too. They watched without knowing it was greed and stupidity of NASA management’s fault. If You fail the first two levels of a three level risk blocker and keep going you’re an idiot.
Wha the late Ray Breen referred to as “getthereitis”
Yeager will be 96 in two weeks. I’ll cut him some slack.
Maybe the O-rings were just part of the story and the rest was held back. Chuck Yeager’s a credible guy.
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