The Challenger Explosion McKenzie Hayes

The Challenger Explosion

McKenzie Hayes

History 153

21 June 2015

The decade between 1980 and 1989 was known as the Reagan era and an era of intense violence and horrible accidents. With civil wars and attempted assassinations happening all over the world, Americans had a lot to discuss in their social and political circles. The two most destructive accidents that took place during this time were the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion (September 26, 1986) and the Challenger space shuttle explosion (January 28, 1986). The Challenger explosion, which killed all seven astronauts on board, was the calamity that hit home the hardest for Americans.¹ Much faith had been placed in the American engineering and technology that allowed us to travel in airplanes, fly us into orbit, or put us on the moon. When that faith was shaken, like it was in the Challenger explosion, it was very hard to win it back. The Challenger explosion of 1986 was not only destructive but also left many questions on the lips of Americans.

Due to a drop in funds after the thrill of the Space Race died off and pressure from the government for “an inexpensive, efficient, reusable spacecraft”,⁴ NASA launched its space shuttle program to produce some of the world’s first reusable manned spacecraft. Challenger was NASA’s second space shuttle to enter service. It embarked for its maiden voyage on April 4, 1983, and made nine successful voyages up until its fatal end in 1986.⁵ Its final crew was composed of seven astronauts: payload specialist Gregory Jarvis; mission specialists Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, and Ronald McNair; mission commander Francis Scobee; pilot Mike Smith; and school teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe.⁶ McAuliffe was a 37-year-old high school social studies instructor from New Hampshire, part of NASA’s Teacher in Space Program. She trained for months and months in order to be the first ordinary American citizen to travel into space. Her goal – and the goal of the program – was to conduct several experiments and teach children two lessons from aboard the Challenger.⁷ Sadly, this never happened.

Engineers – and many others – did warn their superiors that the rubber O-rings that separate the sections of the rocket booster could fail at low temperatures, and that this could be a real concern considering the cold weather that Florida had been experiencing that January. But these warnings went unheeded and Challenger was given permission to launch. According to the Rogers Commission, a special commission appointed by Reagan to investigate into the cause of the disaster, it turned out that this wasn’t the first time NASA had been hearing warnings about these O-rings. The company that designed them, NASA’s primary contractor, Morton Thiokol, also ignored warnings of potential issues with their products. While NASA understood these potential issues, no one halted business in order to fix the problems. NASA managers were also aware, but they, too, didn’t take any action to prevent a catastrophe.⁸

These O-rings were the cause of seven deaths. Due to the frigid temperatures, the two rubber O-rings completely failed, causing a leak in one of the two solid rocket boosters. The flames broke out of the booster and ignited the main liquid fuel tank, causing the Challenger to explode.⁹ But the astronauts’ lives did not end at that point, contrary to what many people believe. The cabin actually detached itself from the wreckage. Since the cabin depressurized, fellow astronauts reported that the crew “possibly but not certainly lost consciousness” due to difficulty breathing at such high altitudes. “The cabin hit the surface 2 minutes and 45 seconds after the breakup, and all investigations indicate the crew was still alive until [they hit the water at a speed greater than 200mph].”¹⁰ Ships combed 150,000 square nautical miles for floating debris, determined to find the bodies of the astronauts and return them to their families. Ten weeks later, the USS Preserve identified the crew cabin on the ocean floor and all the bodies were recovered. Their semi-liquefied state made it difficult to perform accurate autopsies, so the cause of death was never determined.¹¹ Even ten years after the tragedy, large pieces from the shuttle were washing up on Florida beaches.¹²

After the accident, NASA stopped all space missions in order to further assess the problems that had happened with Challenger. For close to three years, they spent time and money in recreating the space shuttle and redesigning its features to compensate for what the Challenger had been lacking: restructured boosters, a new relay satellite, and more advanced safety features to name a few.¹³ On September 29, 1988 the new space shuttle Discovery lifted off with a crew of five. The mission returned successfully, and NASA was back in business until another tragedy struck when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry (February 1, 2003). While missions eventually did resume, NASA decided, due to the number of accidents and the cost factors, to retire the space shuttle in 2011.¹⁴

Like with every endeavor there is bound to be some level of human error, sometimes within our control and sometimes completely out of it. The destruction of the Challenger was NASA’s first and one of its most tragic mistakes in that lives were lost and faith was shaken in a system everyone had thought infallible. As a result, hearings were conducted, evidence was gathered, people were fired, contracts were broken, and ultimately, NASA pulled itself together to take a look at what went wrong, what they needed to fix, and what they needed to do to prevent it from ever happening again. Still, neither NASA nor the public could ever forget the tragedy and the sacrifice that the crew of the Challenger made. President Regan summed it up best when he addressed the public concerning the tragedy. “[America] was built by men and women like our seven star voyagers, who answered a call beyond duty, who gave more than was expected or required and who gave it little thought of worldly reward.”¹⁵

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