The day of January 28th, 1986, in Cape Canaveral, Florida was by far one of the coldest days of the year. One the launch pad there icicles dangling from the launch tower, pad structure, and other launch equipment as the space shuttle Challenger sat there waiting for its historic launch. For over thirty-eight days Challenger's solid rocket boosters, and external tank were soaked seven inches of rain which had caused a enormous amount of icicles to form.
After nearly a five day delay filled with wind, rain, and freezing temperatures, Challenger was finally ready to go on mission 51-L. It would be the twenty-fifth mission for the world's first fleet of reusable manned spaceships. A spike in public interest in the flight had been caused by the fact that a normal United States citizen was chosen to fly abroad the space shuttle. The lucky person was named Sharon Christa McAuliffe, age 37. She was a high school teacher who had been selected through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) sweepstakes from more than 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space. Her job during once in a lifetime experience was to demonstrate and explain the effects of microgravity in the context of Newtonian physics and the scientific, commercial, and industrial applications of space flight. Due to this space flight America was no longer just the exclusive rights of astronauts, scientists, and engineers, but an experience that could be shared by the whole society. Other crew members included spacecraft commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, and Ellison S. Onizuka, and payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis.
On January 28th, 1986, it was the coldest day that ...
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...pposite side of the scale an O-ring at 20 degrees F takes 1.9 seconds to seal. It is this difference in time that most likely caused the explosion of the Challenger.
On January 29th, 1986, live national press coverage let even the most rural communities join in and feel like part of the event. Somehow NASA and Christa McAuliffe had created something so wonderful that it felt as if all of the American people joined together as if there was an invisible flow of holding hands nationwide. As NASA looks to the future, finding ways to go higher, faster, and farther, the tragedy of mission 51-L will never be forgotten. The crew of the ill-fated Challenger have staked their claim in the history books and due to the extensive media coverage. It's truly too bad that such a collaborating, heart-felt event had a tragic end that crushed America's social invincibility forever.
The Challenger shuttle crash was a crash that touched the hearts of every American due to the televised coverage and the relate ability of the crew. There was concern from the engineers that the unusually cold weather the morning of the launch could have adverse affects on the rubber O-rings that sealed the joints of the shuttles solid rocket boosters. The cold weather on the morning of January 28, 1986 caused the O-rings to tear and leak fuel from the boosters. (Dunbar B, 2005)
In a person’s lifetime, many things can happen including death. In 1986 seven individuals, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnic, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe, lost their lives doing what they loved most. The tragedy of the shuttle challenger brought much pain to the nation that day. Along with the pain comes grieving. The nation grieved the loss of these seven wonderful individuals and hoped to find peace and comfort for the days to come. As Ronald Reagan prepared to give the state of the union address, things changed for worse, he unexpectedly had to give a speech on a horrific event. Reagan was devastated at the loss of the seven men and women that were on that space shuttle challenger.
Through this national address Reagan hopes to reach out to the public and encourage them to keep their faith firm in the American space progra...
When the Challenger shuttle was set to launch NASA was feeling political pressure to gain congressional support for the space program, to help gain this support the shuttle crew had a high school teacher on board, Christa McAuliffe, and millions of people were excited and tuned into watch. NASA officials were hoping that this new endeavor would help generate funding since the U.S. budget deficit was soaring and they were afraid that their budget could be cut. Technical failure was the reason the shuttle exploding after take-off but this was not the only reason. With pressure mounting, decisions made by NASA and Morton Thiokol Corporation, the contractor who manufactured the piece with the technical failure, put political agendas in front of the technical decisions, which resulted in the tragedy (Bolman & Deal, 2008).
McQuaid, Kim. The Space Age at the Grass Roots: NASA in Cleveland, 1958-1990. (2006): 114, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40643956 (accessed April 18, 2014).
The Challenger disaster of 1986 was a shock felt around the country. During liftoff, the shuttle exploded, creating a fireball in the sky. The seven astronauts on board were killed and the shuttle was obliterated. Immediately after the catastrophe, blame was spread to various people who were in charge of creating the shuttle and the parts of the shuttle itself. The Presidential Commission was decisive in blaming the disaster on a faulty O-ring, used to connect the pieces of the craft. On the other hand, Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, in The Golem at Large, believe that blame cannot be isolated to any person or reason of failure. The authors prove that there are too many factors to decide concretely as to why the Challenger exploded. Collins and Pinch do believe that it was the organizational culture of NASA and Morton Thiokol that allowed the disaster. While NASA and Thiokol were deciding whether to launch, there was not a concrete reason to postpone the mission.
Dr. Sally Kristen Ride was born in Encino, California on May 26th, 1951. Growing up, Sally was considered a tomboy. She spent most of her time playing football and baseball with the neighborhood boys. As Sally grew older, she found a love for tennis and science fiction novels. In high school, she studied chemistry, physics, trigonometry, and calculus. Sally started her first year of college at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and then transferred to Stanford University in California. At Stanford, Sally’s main studies were english and physics. After graduation Sally entered Stanford’s Master’s program specializing in astrophysics. It was during this that Sally heard that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were looking for young scientists to become mission specialists. She noticed that NASA was encouraging women to apply. Sally applied and seemed to fit all of the requirements. She was asked to report to ...
...derwent varies improvements, which involved raising the heaters in the oxygen tanks from 28 to 65 volts DC. The oxygen tanks thermostatic witches on the heaters weren’t modified to withstand the changes it underwent. On the final test of the launching pad the heaters were said to be on were vastly long period of time, which enabled the wiring in the vicinity of the heaters causing them to reach high temperatures of (1000F) which had degraded the Teflon insulation. The tank was also impacted from the 8 hours of overheating which was a sign of a potential bomb the next time those tanks were filled with oxygen again. This occurred and exploded on April 13, 1970.”Apolllo 13”
” It was reported that during the morning of take off the condition outside was frosty. There were ice patches in different places on the runway, public relations Brian Johnson said. After 15 minutes into the flight communication with the pilot was lost, leaving mission control wondering what was going on.
On a cold winter’s morning on the 28th day of January in the year 1986, America was profoundly shaken and sent to its knees as the space shuttle Challenger gruesomely exploded just seconds after launching. The seven members of its crew, including one civilian teacher, were all lost. This was a game changer, we had never lost a single astronaut in flight. The United States by this time had unfortunately grown accustomed to successful space missions, and this reality check was all too sudden, too brutal for a complacent and oblivious nation (“Space”). The outbreak of sympathy that poured from its citizens had not been seen since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The disturbing scenes were shown repeatedly on news networks which undeniably made it troublesome to keep it from haunting the nation’s cognizance (“Space”). The current president had more than situation to address, he had the problematic undertaking of gracefully picking America back up by its boot straps.
The 1960’s were full of questions, and one of the biggest questions the world was pondering about was regarding the Space Race: was the USA going to beat their communist enemy, the Soviet Union? The Space Race was a series of events that helped to symbolize and determine in the worlds’ eyes which form of government was better, communism (Soviets) or democracy (United States)? In the beginning of the race, the Soviets had the lead, and it was not looking good for America. Then the United States picked up the pace and spent well over eight billion dollars funding the space studies. This period of time made many scientists and astronauts heroes in the eyes of Americans. The Space Race was a combination of determination, intelligence, space projects, and American pride, all used to reach our exploration goals and surpass the Soviets.
Tom Wolfe writes in the book “The Right Stuff” about early jet pilots that demonstrated extreme bravery, and behaviorisms that enabled them to be part of a furtive group of individuals. It has been said that these men usually assemble in groups among themselves in a way that solicited the men to be a part of a privileged membership. It is these pilots with proven courage, and abilities that will go forward testing the next barrier; space.
It was on January 28, 1986 at 11:38 A.M. that the shuttle Challenger, NASA flight 51-L, the twenty-fifth shuttle flight, took off. It was the "Teacher in Space" mission. At lift-off, the temperature at ground level was 36° Fahrenheit, which was 15° Fahrenheit cooler than any previous launch by NASA. It was the Challenger's tenth flight. Take-off had been delayed several times. Finally the shuttle had taken off. The shuttle had climbed high in the sky thirty-five seconds after take-off, and it was getting hit by strong winds. The on board computers were making continuous adjustments so the shuttle would stay on course. About eight miles in the air, about seventy-two seconds after take-off, people watched in fear and horror as the shuttle was engulfed by a huge fire ball. All the crew members were killed instantly.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was July 20 1969, the day that reshaped our nation and gave us unparalleled dreams for the future. The impact of the day goes far beyond our pride and nationalism; that day would change space exploration and technology forever. Just like a shooting star, that day would give us a glimpse of hope. A chance to see an event so breathtaking and defying, it would be man’s greatest accomplishment in the 20th century. As millions of people watched from their TV sets, a rush of euphoria came over the nation as Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the surface of the moon. It was the first time in the history of mankind that we would step on the surface of another celestial body. John F. Kennedy dared us to dream, he inspired the nation to reach for the moon, to set ourselves apart from the rest of the world. The Space Race was symbolic of many things. Our future as the technically dominate nation was secured in place; just as secure as Old Glory would be, when she was driven down into the soil of the moon. We not only reached the moon, we conquered it as a nation; united.