Teachers in Space project logo for mission STS 51-L
Posted on 01/26/2006 11:53:26 AM PST by NormsRevenge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Twenty years ago, space shuttle Challenger blew apart into jets of fire and plumes of smoke, a terrifying sight witnessed by the families of the seven astronauts and by those who came to watch the historic launch of the first teacher in space.
The disaster shattered NASA's spit-shined image and the belief that spaceflight could become as routine as airplane travel. The investigation into the accident's cause revealed a space agency more concerned with schedules and public relations than safety and sound decision-making.
Seventeen years later, seven more astronauts were lost on the shuttle Columbia, leading many to conclude NASA had not learned the lessons of Challenger.
But after last summer's successful return to flight under the highest level of engineering scrutiny ever, many space watchers are more hopeful.
"Don't we all learn as we go?" said Grace Corrigan, who lost her daughter, teacher Christa McAuliffe, in the Challenger accident. "Everybody learns from their mistakes."
Joining McAuliffe on the doomed Jan. 28, 1986 Challenger flight were commander Dick Scobee, pilot Mike Smith and astronauts Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair and Greg Jarvis.
"It was one of those defining moments in your life that you will always remember," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., who had flown on the shuttle mission preceding Challenger. "Because in 1986, the space shuttle was the symbol of technological prowess of the United States and all the sudden it's destroyed in front of everybody's eyes."
The two shuttle disasters, as well as the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew during a 1967 launch pad test, taught the space agency how to improve the herculean task of launching humans into space, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said recently. On Thursday, NASA workers paused for their annual Day of Remembrance in honor of those lost in all three accidents. On Saturday, a ceremony remembering the Challenger accident is planned at Kennedy Space Center.
Challenger was brought down just after liftoff by a poorly designed seal in the shuttle's solid rocket booster, which has since been redesigned and has performed without problems. It will be used on the next-generation vehicle with plans to return astronauts to the moon and later to Mars.
"We learned how to design solid rocket boosters ... with no further failures," Griffin said. "We got that from the Challenger crew, so that is part of the learning process, I'm afraid."
The Challenger disaster came in an era of tighter budgets, smaller work forces and a constant need for the space agency to justify the shuttle program that followed the heyday of the Apollo moon shots. NASA had hoped sending a teacher into space to give a lesson would win back some public interest and show the routine nature of shuttle flights.
The success of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs had led NASA to believe that spaceflight eventually could become as commonplace as an airplane ride, said Stanley Reinartz, the former manager of the shuttle project office at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He made the decision not to take engineers' concerns about the Challenger's O-ring seals to the highest reaches of NASA management.
"Things can go wrong," Reinartz said of the decision to launch. "You don't get away from it. It's always there."
Nelson said he is confident that the current NASA leaders have learned the lessons of management hubris from their predecessors. Griffin grounded the shuttle fleet last summer after foam fell off the tank of Discovery during the first shuttle flight after Columbia. It was a chunk of foam debris that doomed Columbia by knocking a hole in its wing.
"The problem that NASA has had that caused the destruction of both space shuttles is the same reason ... arrogance in the management of NASA so that they were not listening to the engineers on the line," Nelson said.
But some critics wonder how long the 2-year-old reforms and attitude changes implemented after Columbia will last until, once again, dissenting opinion is discouraged and NASA managers override the concerns of their engineers.
In a series of telephone conference calls the night before Challenger's liftoff, engineers from NASA contractor Morton Thiokol recommended against a launch because data showed that cold temperatures compromised the O-rings' resiliency. The temperature at launch time was 36 degrees. Under perceived pressure from NASA managers, Thiokol managers reversed themselves and went against the recommendation of their engineers not to launch, according to the investigation by a commission appointed by President Reagan.
"The presidential commission made very powerful and strong recommendations on how the system needed to be fixed," said Roger Boisjoly, a former Thiokol engineer who had opposed the Challenger launch during the conference calls. "Initially NASA installed every one of those (recommendations), but in the ensuing years proceeded to dismantle them."
Griffin said he is reminded of the early days of the nation's air transport system when scores of test pilots died in plane accidents during the early part of last century.
"The knowledge we gained was gained only through many, many losses," Griffin said. "That is the perspective through which we must look at our losses in spaceflight."
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On the Net:
NASA's Web site on the history of the Challenger accident:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sts51l.html
NASA Day of Remembrance: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/dor_front/index.html
Teachers in Space project logo for mission STS 51-L
Grace Corrigan, right, mother of teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe, speaks with Sue Darnell-Ellis, of Kentucky, left, and Carolyn Dobbins, of Tenn., center, who were both in the NASA's Teacher-in-Space Program with McAuliffe in 1985, after the showing of the documentary, 'Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars,' Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006, at Framingham, Mass. State College, McAuliffe's alma mater. The showing commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Challenger explosion in 1986, in which McAuliffe and six other astronauts died. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
I recently saw something on a NASA poster about the reusable boosters that said they had had more than 3 decades of safe flight. Is this just the Challenger down the memory hole?
RIP
I remember when that happened. I was 5 years old, and I was at home sick. My mom turned on the launch on Tv, since I was a space nut. It was almost immediately clear that something was wrong. When it was confirmed, I made a card with ink stamps and sent it to NASA. I got a letter from NASA in response, and it is now framed at my parents' house.
Feels like 1986 was yesterday to me. I was young too: 11 at the time.
I was in 5th grade. Our class watched it happen on TV.
Challenger is my generation's "Do you remember where you were when..." event. I vividly remember being in the lounge of my college dorm and overhearing the announcement from the television in the next room. Everyone was stunned and silent. I felt my heart sink. It was a very sad day.
I was working that day, and one of our more typically hysterical people came into the office shouting that the shuttle had exploded. Since she had a reputation for flying off the handle, I figured it had suffered some malfunction, or one of the engines had shut down early, or even that she had seen the SRB sep and didn't know what it meant.
Then I turned on the radio.
I spent my lunch break at the nearby mall watching the aftermath on a department store TV, and that night I wrote a letter to President Reagan urging that the space program continue as a way of honoring the lives of the astronauts.
I still choke up every time I hear "Go for throttle-up" during a launch.
Norm Nice!! Thanks for posting the thread!
I'm no spring chicken like you kids,
but it sure doesn't seem like 20 years
to me, either!
We may have met.... I had just started working for Rockwell then. We were up in the old MDAC building, listening to NASA select on the radio. I still remember it like it was yesterday.
I was in third grade. It was unbelievable.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.
Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight; we've never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle; but they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.
For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.
We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.
And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.
I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute. We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.
I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."
There's a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
I was stationed in Korea - woke up to prepare for work and turned the radio on to a very excited announcer telling of the tragedy.
Wow...has it really been twenty years?
I was nine...it was our first year of homeschooling. We were watching the launch when the explosion happened. I just remember looking over at Mom, not really understanding what had just happened - it was very fast. It was a shock when I learned that it was gone, just like that, with all those people.
Thanks for posting Reagan's wonderful and eloquent speech. On reading it, it seems even more poignant today than it did that day. It brought a tear to my eye again.
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