The Space Shuttle Challenger Catastrophe

On January 28th, 1986, at 11:38 a.m., a space shuttle known as Challenger launched at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. In a matter of 73 seconds, what was going to be a momentous moment in the history of the space program became a national tragedy that would be burned into the minds of millions. There had been warnings from people throughout the companies helping engineer Challenger and even from NASA employees. Their calls were not considered that day, and it caused the death of a loved and inspiring crew. This is the story of the space shuttle that forever changed the course of the U.S. space program and caused the deaths of seven incredible people.

The space shuttle Challenger had its maiden flight in April 1983. Challenger was flown for ten missions during the three years it was in operation. Its main components for launching were two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) that were designed by NASA contractor Morton Thiokol. These boosters each contained O-rings to prevent the hot, pressurised air within from escaping. This meant that the O-rings were incredibly important as an explosion could occur if they failed. There were two of these in each booster; one primary and one redundant. Tests dating back to as far as 1977 showed that the O-rings eroded and allowed leakage of gas when the temperature was low outside. Challenger’s previous flights also showed signs of O-ring erosion, even when the temperature was at a standard level. It was lack of regard for this temperature issue that caused the fatal explosion.

The mission’s crew consisted of seven people: Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe. This crew drew media attention across the U.S. because of one of its crew members, Christa McAuliffe. She was not an expert in the field of science or engineering, but a social studies teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. NASA had run a contest known as the “NASA Teacher in Space Project” and she was chosen from more than 11,000 applicants to fly with the Challenger crew and record lessons from outer space. Each crew member had their own family, relationships and story; if you would like to learn more about them, I highly recommend the Netflix docu-series “Challenger: The Final Flight”.

The temperature on the 28th of January was predicted to be around -3°C, which was seven degrees lower than what had been declared “safe” by Morton Thiokol. The engineers of the company decided that a launch that day would be unsafe and would need to be postponed. However, the management of Morton Thiokol believed that the information was “inconclusive” and that the flight was safe to go ahead. The management spoke to NASA (but did not bring up the O-ring issue), and they agreed on the launch taking place that next morning. The engineers were very unhappy with this decision, but they could do nothing to prevent the launch. It took place at 11:38 a.m. the next day, and just 73 seconds into the flight, what many at both NASA and Morton Thiokol predicted would happen, happened. The O-rings eroded, allowing the liquid oxygen and hydrogen gas to mix causing a fatal explosion, killing all seven members of the crew. As the crowd at the space centre watched on, the blunt yet silencing message played over the speakers: “The vehicle has exploded”. Millions of people watched the tragedy take place, including the crew’s families and children across the U.S., some of whom being Christa McAuliffe’s own students.

This tragic event caused major changes in NASA’s space program; the program itself was put on hold for three years. Investigators determined that NASA had violated launch rules by not implementing what the engineers knew to be true. This failure to observe basic safety rules resulted in the tragedy. This was the first-time astronauts had died whilst in-flight. Though it caused many important changes to NASA’s safety recommendations, this disaster was entirely preventable and should never have taken place. R.I.P. to all those on-board Challenger and thank you for reading.