10 Tragic Details Surrounding The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

6 /10 The Launch Had Been Delayed

Before its 10th launch on January 28, 1986, the Challenger flight had been delayed and rescheduled four times.

The initial launch date was July 1985.

However, a succession of payload changes shifted the launch date to January 22.

Even then, it was still postponed three times and scrubbed once due to weather concerns.

The cold had dropped to freezing levels, and NASA had no experience with launching in such conditions.

However, on the cold winter morning of January 28, flight 51-L of the Challenger launched but never made it to space.

It exploded 73 seconds into the mission.

5 /10 The Crew May Not Have Died Instantly

Despite the destruction of its external tank, the Challenger remained relatively intact.

However, without its boosters and tank, it stood no chance against potent aerodynamic forces, which tore it apart.

The cabin and other debris then entered freefall from an altitude of 65,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean. 

The crew’s time of death is still unascertainable; however, they were likely alive as the shuttle made its fatal descent into the sea.

The massive impact of the shuttle crashing into the sea at 200mph may have been what killed the astronauts on the Challenger shuttle.

4 /10 The Explosion Was Caused By Faulty Equipment

After the explosion, the Government appointed Commission (the Rogers Commission) to determine the accident’s cause.

Investigations by the Commission found out that failed O-ring seals caused the explosion.

The Commission submitted that the problem began with the joints’ faulty design on the Solid Rocket Boosters manufactured by Morton Thiokol.

And was aggravated by the freezing weather, which caused the O-ring seals’ failure at the joint.

These seals were meant to prevent hot propellant gases from leaking through the joint.

But their integrity was compromised by the cold, causing them not to seal correctly.

However, that’s not the only cause of the accident.

3 /10 Flawed Management Culture Contributed

The Rogers commission also discovered a contributory cause.

The flawed launching decision was caused by a communication failure between the engineering teams and NASA’s management.

The Commission, which included Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, and Chuck Yeager, found that Thiokol had ignored reports of issues with the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB).

And so had NASA’s managers.

They downplayed the potential consequences of the faulty SRB O-rings and failed to report all the facts to the team responsible for the flight’s launch. 

The Commission believed that “…if the decision-makers had known all the facts, …highly unlikely that they would have decided to launch…”

2 /10 NASA Activities Were Benched For A While

The Challenger disaster caused NASA to halt all launches for two years.

And within that time, it changed some shuttle features.

NASA also made extensive changes to its workforce and management culture.

In 1988, activities commenced with the launch of the Discovery shuttle.

However, no civilians were included in any space flight for 22 years, until 2007, when Barbara Morgan took part in the Endeavour flight.

In 2003, a second shuttle disaster rocked the world.

The shuttle, Columbia, was destroyed on reentry and killed seven astronauts. The Space shuttle program ended in 2011.

1 /10 After The Challenger

Ten years later, two large debris from the Challenger were washed up on a Florida beach.

Debris from the shuttle is stored in a missile silo at Cape Canaveral, while some are kept on display at the Kennedy Space Center.

There is a Memorial to the crew of the Challenger at the Arlington National cemetery.

The Challenger crews’ families also founded the Challenger Center for Space Science Education program that brings students on simulated space missions. 

Every year, in January, NASA remembers all its crew lost in space disasters, including the last crews of the Challenger, Columbia, and Apollo 1.  

There’s a myriad of questions that remain unanswered. Why was NASA so eager to launch despite red flags?

Was it politically motivated? – Reagan was set to have a State of the Union speech that evening.

It was postponed. We may never know the answers to these questions. 

However, the memory of that fateful day would be forever etched in our hearts and mind.