I remember at the time (mid ‘80s) that we folks out in the public were given the (false) impression that the shuttle program missions were routine and safe, almost taken for granted (which was a similar mindset in the post Apollo 11 era).
I was watching here live at home (as a 6th grader) when the Challenger blew up, and that was quite the shock. One wonders had that mission gone off without a hitch, if the program might’ve gotten even more reckless, especially with respect to sending up unqualified individuals.
Could be. NASA was making serious plans to launch shuttles from Vandenberg AFB because Cape Canaveral alone didn’t have the capacity to launch as many shuttle missions as NASA was planning. After Challenger, the plans for Vandenberg were scrapped and the launch rate was never again like it was pre-Challenger.
The incoming shuttle astronauts knew up front that the shuttle had a higher risk. To NASA’s credit, they told the astronauts up-front that the shuttle program didn’t have the PR or congressional backing that Apollo did, so there’s going to be a lot less money and much higher risk for the program. The first 5 shuttle missions had the same ejection seats as the SR-71, then they were taken out. And those ejection seats were only good for the first 2 minutes of launch and when the shuttle was coming back and they were under 100,000 feet. It really bothered the astronauts that there was no escape system.
Post-challenger, NASA designed an escape system because it was required by the accident report but it was a joke and they all knew it. The escape system was essentially a long pole sticking out of the side door and you’d slide down the pole on a tether to get clear of the wing, then you were free-falling down to under 30,000 feet. When an aerospace vehicle is tumbling out of control, how the heck are you ever going to unstrap from your seat, maneuver yourself to the door in a spacesuit that weighs as much as you do (so your combined weight is on the order of 300 lbs), and get out? There’s no way. Fighter pilots wearing a lot less can’t ditch from a jet like that, that’s why the ejection seat was invented. The astronauts joked, “The emergency escape checklist gives you something to read before you die.”
The shuttle also had a Range Safety System. Explosives would destroy the shuttle if it were coming down near any populated area. The astronauts knew there was no way there were getting out before it would be used. If you ever see the big red RSS ARM light come on in the cockpit, you have about 2 seconds to say a prayer because you are dead. They were baffled as to why that light was even there.