Remembering the Challenger - 19 Years

[MississippiMan]

I was in my business, a consumer electronics store. Although a ton of TVs were perpetually playing, the volume controls were all down and I didn't notice. An old man, perhaps eighty, walked in and I said, "Can I help you, sir?"

"Space shuttle done blowed up."

"What?" I said.

"Space shuttle. BLOWED up!"

I turned up the volume and watched the coverage, stunned. The old man, whom I'd never seen before, watched for a moment and left.

MM

[enviros_kill]

There are two aspects of Challenger and seven dead astronauts that deserve attention:

ENVIRONMENTALISM RUN AMUCK CONTRIBUTED TO CHALLENGER EXPLOSION (and COLUMBIA)
1. removal of asbestos from the putty holding the O-rings in place made the O-rings more brittle at low temperatures. The blame for this can be laid at the feet of the radical environmentalists, trial lawyers and feel good greenies at NASA that rushed to remove the asbestos. (Similarly, removal of asbestos from the World Trade Center steel during construction made them fall down sooner than they would have otherwise on 9-11-01, resulting in more deaths.)

Earth Worshipers Cause Death in Space: Environmental Dogma Has Led to the Sacrifice of Fourteen Astronauts on the Space Shuttle
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2942
Written by an aerospace engineer and former flight controller at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Asbestos and CFC bans destroyed two shuttles and killed 14 astronauts -- thanks to the eco-totalitarians.

NASA CULTURE: COVERUP
2. the NASA culture portrayed in a series of article in the Miami Herald in 1989-1990 was also to blame. These are fascinating background articles and well worth printing out and taking the time to read.

http://web.archive.org/web/20031202164039/http://www.linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=318

And another point of interest:
DIVERSITY (aka white male discrimination) CAN WEAKEN AN ORGANIZATION due to NOT hiring the best qualified

-NASA guilty of age and white male discrimination
http://www.machinedesign.com/ASP/viewSelectedArticle.asp?strArticleId=55962&strSite=MDSite&Screen=CURRENTISSUE

-NASA guilty of white male discrimination-reader letters
http://www.machinedesign.com/ASP/viewSelectedArticle.asp?strArticleId=56365&strSite=MDSite&Screen=CURRENTISSUE


I'm ready for privatizing space exploration.

[rintense]

I was skipping school- my Junior year in HS. We had a volleyball game later that night and I was just damn tired. So I skipped the morning classes. Driving to school, I heard the news break about the Challenger, and rushed to French class to tell my teacher. When I got to class, I told her what happened. She accused me of playing a horrible joke (and lying) and was quite mad- until she turned the radio on. She played the news for our whole class. It was pretty hard to grasp and understand.

[exnavychick]

I remember it very clearly. I had just turned ten a few months before, and I was in the third grade. Our entire class was watching the launch on a TV in the classroom. We were all excited to see the launch, and what happened was a terrible shock. A lot of kids started crying once we understood what had really happened. We were let out of class early to go home.

I thought about it all the way home, and I have never forgotten it. I am getting the shivers just remembering it now.

[GVnana]

What a shock it was.

[bootless]

I sure do. I was just waking up, listening to KCBS radio and Christopher Glenn's narration of the launch. I just couldn't believe it.

A gentleman whose office is down the hall from mine here at the airport roomed with Ronald McNair in NASA training. Bill didn't make all the cuts, and McNair obviously did. How haunting. They were competing for the spot on Challenger. He has several pictures of the crew in his office.

[Denver Ditdat]

NAS Cecil Field in Jacksonville, teaching F/A-18A avionics at NAMTGD 1039. One of the other instructors poked his head into the doorway of my classroom, said "The shuttle just blew up", and ducked back out. After a few stunned seconds we followed the crowd streaming to the parking lot. There in the cold blue sky was the now infamous forked SRB plumes. Hard to believe that 19 years have gone by since that day.

BTW, Chief, on my last Orlando visit I drove by the old NTC site. The base had been completely leveled for redevelopment, and cookie cutter housing stood where the Nuc School used to be. Kinda sad. I taught BE/E at NTC Orlando as a contract instructor, my first civilian job after getting discharged in 1989. The bases, ships, and squadrons that were a part of my Cold War Navy service are rapidly disappearing.

[My Favorite Headache]

I was in catholic grade school in New Jersey...6th grade. I now live 15 miles from the Space Center and can see rockets take off from my front porch like they are right in front of me.

[Rose in RoseBear]

I was working at Brooks AFB, San Antonio, Texas, in the centrifuge building. If you've ever been to Brooks, there's a circular drive in front of the main building. I'd just gone through the gate and was driving in the circle when the news came on my car radio. I would have been listening to KONO-AM ("Dial 86!") and singing along with the oldies ...

I've seen the explosion once, maybe twice. I simply can't watch it.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

I was in a staff meeting. The exec-sec broke in to deliver the news. We were dumb-struck.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I was in school, watching it in history class, because the teacher was from my home state, and it was a historical thing... so... who knew, eh?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

January 28, 1986,11:38:00 a.m. EST. First Shuttle liftoff scheduled from Pad B. Launch set for 3:43 p.m. EST, Jan. 22, slipped to Jan. 23, then Jan. 24, due to delays in mission 61-C. Launch reset for Jan. 25 because of bad weather at transoceanic abort landing (TAL) site in Dakar, Senegal. To utilize Casablanca (not equipped for night landings) as alternate TAL site, T-zero moved to morning liftoff time. Launch postponed a day when launch processing unable to meet new morning liftoff time. Prediction of unacceptable weather at KSC led to launch rescheduled for 9:37 a.m. EST, Jan. 27. Launch delayed 24 hours again when ground servicing equipment hatch closing fixture could not be removed from orbiter hatch. Fixture sawed off and attaching bolt drilled out before closeout completed. During delay, cross winds exceeded return-to-launch-site limits at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility. Launch Jan. 28 delayed two hours when hardware interface module in launch processing system, which monitors fire detection system, failed during liquid hydrogen tanking procedures.

Just after liftoff at .678 seconds into the flight, photographic data show a strong puff of gray smoke was spurting from the vicinity of the aft field joint on the right Solid Rocket Booster. Computer graphic analysis of film from pad cameras indicated the initial smoke came from the 270 to 310-degree sector of the circumference of the aft field joint of the right Solid Rocket Booster. This area of the solid booster faces the External Tank. The vaporized material streaming from the joint indicated there was not complete sealing action within the joint.

Eight more distinctive puffs of increasingly blacker smoke were recorded between .836 and 2.500 seconds. The smoke appeared to puff upwards from the joint. While each smoke puff was being left behind by the upward flight of the Shuttle, the next fresh puff could be seen near the level of the joint. The multiple smoke puffs in this sequence occurred at about four times per second, approximating the frequency of the structural load dynamics and resultant joint flexing. As the Shuttle increased its upward velocity, it flew past the emerging and expanding smoke puffs. The last smoke was seen above the field joint at 2.733 seconds.

The black color and dense composition of the smoke puffs suggest that the grease, joint insulation and rubber O-rings in the joint seal were being burned and eroded by the hot propellant gases.

At approximately 37 seconds, Challenger encountered the first of several high-altitude wind shear conditions, which lasted until about 64 seconds. The wind shear created forces on the vehicle with relatively large fluctuations. These were immediately sensed and countered by the guidance, navigation and control system. The steering system (thrust vector control) of the Solid Rocket Booster responded to all commands and wind shear effects. The wind shear caused the steering system to be more active than on any previous flight.

Both the Shuttle main engines and the solid rockets operated at reduced thrust approaching and passing through the area of maximum dynamic pressure of 720 pounds per square foot. Main engines had been throttled up to 104 percent thrust and the Solid Rocket Boosters were increasing their thrust when the first flickering flame appeared on the right Solid Rocket Booster in the area of the aft field joint. This first very small flame was detected on image enhanced film at 58.788 seconds into the flight. It appeared to originate at about 305 degrees around the booster circumference at or near the aft field joint.

One film frame later from the same camera, the flame was visible without image enhancement. It grew into a continuous, well-defined plume at 59.262 seconds. At about the same time (60 seconds), telemetry showed a pressure differential between the chamber pressures in the right and left boosters. The right booster chamber pressure was lower, confirming the growing leak in the area of the field joint.

As the flame plume increased in size, it was deflected rearward by the aerodynamic slipstream and circumferentially by the protruding structure of the upper ring attaching the booster to the External Tank. These deflections directed the flame plume onto the surface of the External Tank. This sequence of flame spreading is confirmed by analysis of the recovered wreckage. The growing flame also impinged on the strut attaching the Solid Rocket Booster to the External Tank.

The first visual indication that swirling flame from the right Solid Rocket Booster breached the External Tank was at 64.660 seconds when there was an abrupt change in the shape and color of the plume. This indicated that it was mixing with leaking hydrogen from the External Tank. Telemetered changes in the hydrogen tank pressurization confirmed the leak. Within 45 milliseconds of the breach of the External Tank, a bright sustained glow developed on the black-tiled underside of the Challenger between it and the External Tank.

Beginning at about 72 seconds, a series of events occurred extremely rapidly that terminated the flight. Telemetered data indicate a wide variety of flight system actions that support the visual evidence of the photos as the Shuttle struggled futilely against the forces that were destroying it.

At about 72.20 seconds the lower strut linking the Solid Rocket Booster and the External Tank was severed or pulled away from the weakened hydrogen tank permitting the right Solid Rocket Booster to rotate around the upper attachment strut. This rotation is indicated by divergent yaw and pitch rates between the left and right Solid Rocket Boosters.

At 73.124 seconds,. a circumferential white vapor pattern was observed blooming from the side of the External Tank bottom dome. This was the beginning of the structural failure of hydrogen tank that culminated in the entire aft dome dropping away. This released massive amounts of liquid hydrogen from the tank and created a sudden forward thrust of about 2.8 million pounds, pushing the hydrogen tank upward into the intertank structure. At about the same time, the rotating right Solid Rocket Booster impacted the intertank structure and the lower part of the liquid oxygen tank. These structures failed at 73.137 seconds as evidenced by the white vapors appearing in the intertank region.

Within milliseconds there was massive, almost explosive, burning of the hydrogen streaming from the failed tank bottom and liquid oxygen breach in the area of the intertank.

At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the Challenger was totally enveloped in the explosive burn. The Challenger's reaction control system ruptured and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurred as it exited the oxygen-hydrogen flames. The reddish brown colors of the hypergolic fuel burn are visible on the edge of the main fireball. The Orbiter, under severe aerodynamic loads, broke into several large sections which emerged from the fireball. Separate sections that can be identified on film include the main engine/tail section with the engines still burning, one wing of the Orbiter, and the forward fuselage trailing a mass of umbilical lines pulled loose from the payload bay.

The Explosion 73 seconds after liftoff claimed crew and vehicle. Cause of explosion was determined to be an O-ring failure in right SRB. Cold weather was a contributing factor. Launch Weight: 268,829 lbs.

From: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/mission-51-l.html

[w1andsodidwe]

The thing that strikes me now, is I remember our first question was "Was it terrorism?" Now 19 years later we are finally dealing with that so that maybe in the future that won't have to be our first question.

[DrewsDad]

It was my 2nd week co-oping for a NASA contractor, so I was across NASA Road 1 from the Houston(Clear Lake) NASA site. It was eerie how quiet things got when everyone just sort of quietly and somberly went home early that day.

I still have the patch for that mission and almost talked someone out of a poster that had the shuttle lifting off with the words, "Defect Prevention. It Matters."

[Bernard Marx]

I was at home in Shell Beach, CA I'd gotten up early to watch the pre-launch preparations on CNN (no Fox in those days!) and began having bad vibes when I saw the crews knocking icicles off the equipment.

It was a media-pushed launch. By that I mean there had been several delays due to technical problems and many of the MSM loudmouths were sounding off about NASA and how it couldn't keep to its shuttle schedule. Looking at the determined faces in the Houston control center I had the feeling they'd decided to launch against their better judgment because of the cold.

Then, when the vehicle rose above the pad, I began to relax. It's going to be OK, I told myself. I settled back in my seat and then...two twisting coils of white smoke arcing off in death spirals. I knew what had happened and my heart and soul were sick. I get the same feeling when I think of it now.

God Bless you all, brave souls of Challenger and Columbia. You live on in our hearts.

[CARDINALRULES]

I remember how cold that morning was, with frost on the ground. The sun was shining and the sky was a beautiful blue and clear of clouds.

We were supposed to watch on tv but for some reason it wasn't working that morning, and it was still too cold for our teacher to let us go out to watch.

They got orders from someone not to tell us but by lunch time most knew about it.

I remember I went home and watched coverage for hours and hours and to this day I can still see it (yes it is seared into my memory ..lol).

A few days later we all got to watch President Reagan at the service.

[Libertina]

I was at CPAC when that happended. Everyone was huddled around the few small TVS or walking around dazed...

[arasina]

Do you remember where you were, 19 years ago today? "Challenger, go with throttle up.."

I was in the control room of the TV station, getting ready for our noon newscast and talking with the director about how boring the Shuttle coverage was becoming---that Shuttle missions were becoming so routine even though this one was a little more exciting because of Christa McAuliffe's participation---joked a bit about the fact that I had named my car after the first American woman in space (Sally Ride).

There are dozens of monitors in the control room and they each had a version of the same shot---a brilliant blue sky being embroidered with that puffy white streak of the Shuttle---and suddenly the streak became forked and we knew something was wrong, even though the NASA announcer didn't say so right away. We both gasped in shock at what we realized we had just witnessed---the death of seven astronauts. I was too stunned to cry, and we had work to do, so everyone got in place for live coverage and the announcement of this horrific news. Later in the day, people were gathered around the assignment desk in the newsroom, watching the coverage there, and I finally was able to let my emotions go and the tears flowed.

It's a day I will always remember, as well as the days that followed, especially President Reagan's stirring speech to the grieving nation. I vowed never to become complacent again about America's space program achievements.

[Pyro7480]

I was 5 too! I was home sick from school and I remember watching something about it on TV. When I realized it had exploded, I wrote an "I'm sorry" card, using some spaceship inkstamps that I had. NASA actually sent me a letter thanking me for the card, and I have a framed copy of the letter in my room at my parents' house. I can't believe most of my life has taken place since then.

[Christian4Bush]

I most certainly remember where I was.

I was a senior in high school, Westchester (Los Angeles). It was finals week, and I was in my 2nd period, studying for our first semester exam (in, of all classes, Government). Some of the students were allowed to go study in the library.

Ten minutes or so before the end of class, two of the students came running back into the room, breathlessly talking about the "space shuttle blowing up". Since they were--how shall I say--sometimes given to hyperbole, they got the "yeah, right" look from some. They insisted that they were serious--the space shuttle had blown up.

We heard the school announcement about five minutes later, over the squawk box speakers.

My first thought was to call my father, who worked at the Rockwell plant in Downey, CA. He said it was really quiet out there, understandably. He and his people did some work related to the shuttle program, so it hit them hard.

It was a half-day, so we got out at 12:30. I got home in time to hear President Reagan's magnificent "Face of God" speech, on what was supposed to be the "State of the Union" address day.

(Fifteen years later, when President Bush spoke to both houses of Congress on September 20, 2001, he said very similar words: (paraphrasing) "In the normal course of events, we would be here to report on the state of our Union. Tonight, no such report is necessary.")

It's something I hoped I'd never see, nor ever see again; yet, it did...on my father's birthday, two years ago, with the Columbia. So yes, the years have NOT dulled my memories of that day.

To all who brave the skies, and defy gravity, to explore the galaxies: "Second star to the right...and straight on till morning."