The challenger shuttle disaster was a catastrophic event on January 28, 1986. The unthinkable happened as the shuttle burst 73 seconds after takeoff leaving all seven crew members dead. This included teacher in space Christa McAuliffe who was going to teach lessons from space to children in schools across the nation. This devastating end to a much celebrated launch brought tears to the eyes of many including the school children watching the unsuccessful launch. The tragedy led many to questioning why and how this disaster occurred which later NASA concluded was because of the rubber O-rings being burned by propellant gases and the spacecraft set fire causing it to break apart or explode.
The Challenger mission STS-51-L was the tenth mission of a series of spaceflights. The mission objectives were to monitor and observe Halley’s Comet occurring only once every 75-76 years. They were to run two teacher in space experiments, three student involvement program experiments led by Christa McAuliffe. Also on the agenda they were to do
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Jarvis was not an official federal government employee but a payload specialist and worked for Hughes Aircraft Corp.’s space and communications group. Born on August 24, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan he had a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from the state University of New York. Jarvis later received an M.S in management Science from West Coast University. He was accepted into the astronaut program in 1984 under Hughes sponsorship after competing against 600 other Hughes employees for the place.
Challenger pilot Michael J. Smith was born on April 30, 1945 in Beuafort, North Carolina. Smith had an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the naval postgraduate school and afterwards underwent aeronautical training and got his wings in 1969. Logging more than 4,300 hours of flying time he was chosen as a NASA astronaut in 1980. After a year of training he received an assignment as a pilot, the challenger was to be his first
Chris Hadfield was born in 1959 in Sarnia, Ontario. He was raised on a corn farm in Milton, Ontario and became an astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency(CSA). Chris Hadfield is an inspiration to all aspiring Canadians who want to be an astronaut and has shown people that even with small beginnings they can become famous and significant to Canada. This sudden surge in popularity allowed for Chris Hadfield to increase the interest towards a career as an astronaut. He was the head astronaut at the CSA so he could share his experiences and was the first Canadian to do many things in space.
After that he went into the Air Force academy and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and advanced into a flight leader and training officer which then he got the ranking of a captain. During his duty he was stationed in North America and Europe. Shorty after serving in the air force he went to become an air pilot with Pacific Southline Airlines. Later on he transferred to US airways and stayed with them until he retired from commercial flying in early 2010.
While seated in the Oval Office of the White House, January 28, 1986 President Ronald Reagan delivers his speech The Challenger Disaster hours after the space shuttle The Challenger explodes while in take off. Thousands witnessed this horrifying event live, in person and on television. This mission was very unique, allowing the first civilian to ever be allowed in space during a mission. She was aboard The Challenger as an observer in the NASA Teacher in Space Program. Ironically, nineteen years before this disaster, three astronauts were tragically lost in an accident on the ground.
Attended Oregon State University 1946 – 1950 and received a BS. Degree. Taught High School Science for eight months at Benson High School before being recalled to active duty for the Korean War on 1 April 1951. Assigned 816th TCS and flew C-119s out of Ashiya, Japan in support of the Korean War. Promoted to Captain 1 June 1952.
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.
Since the presidency of George Washington, the people of The United States have turned to the commander in chief in times of distress to receive assurance and hope. Kurt Ritter comments on President Reagan’s address to the nation given on January 28, 1986 saying, “Perhaps no president could have fulfilled the country’s need to mourn and, then, to begin to heal as skillfully as Ronald Reagan (Ritter, 3).” On that morning the space shuttle “Challenger” violently exploded while the nation watched live televised coverage of the shuttle’s launch. President Reagan was scheduled to give his State of the Union Address on that date, but instead he reached out the country in this time of mourning. He spoke from his oval office to heartbroken teachers, children, NASA Space Engineers, and the entire country. President Reagan’s reaction to the tragedy of the challenger guided the United States out of despair and into a new light of hope behind seven fallen heroes. In this essay I will show that Reagan gave our country a new light of hope through his emphasis on Pathos but also incorporating Ethos and Logos in this memorable presentation.
NASA has faced many tragedies during their time; but one can question if two of the tragedies were preventable by changing some critical decisions made by the organization. The investigation board looking at the decisions made for the space shuttle tragedies of the Columbia and Challenger noted that the “loss resulted as much from organizational as from technical failures” (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 191). The two space shuttle tragedies were about twenty years apart, they both had technical failures but politics also played a factor in to these two tragedies.
Even though there were many factors contributing to the Challenger disaster, the most important issue was the lack of an effective risk management plan. The factors leading to the Challenger disaster are:
Chris Hadfield's passion was to fly and at age 15 he won a Glider Pilot Scholarship but, he still wanted to be an astronaut. Canada did not offer him the program, so instead he joined the Canadian Armed Forces. In 1978, he spent 2 years at military college where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering by 1982.
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost due to structural failure in the left wing. On take-off, it was reported that a piece of foam insulation surrounding the shuttle fleet's 15-story external fuel tanks fell off of Columbia's tank and struck the shuttle's left wing. Extremely hot gas entered the front of Columbia's left wing just 16 seconds after the orbiter penetrated the hottest part of Earth's atmosphere on re-entry. The shuttle was equipped with hundreds of temperature sensors positioned at strategic locations. The salvaged flight recorded revealed that temperatures started to rise in the left wing leading edge a full minute before any trouble on the shuttle was noted. With a damaged left wing, Columbia started to drag left. The ships' flight control computers fought a losing battle trying to keep Columbia's nose pointed forward.
Female astronaut Judy Resnik was born 1949 in Ohio. Similar to Scobee, this mission is not her first one. Resnik was the second American female in space. The first mission she was involved was with the voyage of Discovery. Discovery was launched from the Kennedy Space Center. Greg Jarvis was born in 1944 and was the payload specialist on the Challenger mission. He was born in Michigan and graduated from the State University of New York in Buffalo. Ellison S. Onizuka was born in Hawaii in 1946. The first mission Onizuka was involved with was mission 51-C, a flight of Discovery mission. He was the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach space. Michael J. Smith was born in North Carolina 1945 and during his career he was a United States Navy
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 Space Race began when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space in 1957. The United States’ answer to this was the Apollo program. While the Apollo program did have successful launches, such as the Apollo 11 launch that landed Americans on the moon, not every launch went as smoothly. Fifty years ago, a disaster occurred that shook the Apollo program to its core. On January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 command module was consumed by a fire during one of its launch rehearsal tests. This led to the death of three astronauts, Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, Edward Higgins White, and Roger Bruce Chaffee. The fire was caused by a number of factors, most of which were technical. These causes range from the abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere of the
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.
There are quite a few similarities between the Columbia accident and the Challenger accident. In both cases, self-interest may have been partly an impediment to responsible action by the managers for their image. According to the Impediments to Responsible Action, managers are claimed successful and advance their careers by being associated with promptness and on-schedule flights.