Tomorrow, January 28th, marks the 25th anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Challenger, and its seven astronauts. The Challenger disintegrated just 73 seconds into its mission after rubber O-rings on the shuttle's solid rocket boosters (SRB) deteriorated in the cold weather, allowing hot gasses to escape out the side and burn a hole in the external fuel tank. The spacecraft became aerodynamically unstable, causing a massive disintegration of the external tank and the orbiter itself.
Among the passengers onboard was Christa McAuliffe, NASA's first "Teacher in Space." Another "Teacher in Space," Barbara Morgan, who was Ms. McAuliffe's backup, waited 21 years to get her ride, finally going into orbit aboard STS-118, in August, 2007.
I recall being in class that fateful Tuesday morning. TV coverage of the launch was almost non-existent (only CNN was televising the launch) as most networks felt shuttle launches were too routine to interrupt normal programming. But around mid-day, I started hearing people talking in the halls--"Did you hear? The space shuttle exploded!" I found it hard to believe. How could such a thing possibly be true? We managed to round up a TV set and, by now, all the networks were covering the disaster. The liftoff was picture perfect on a very cold Florida morning. But a minute later, our lives had all been changed, as had the entire U.S. manned space program. Although NASA initially claimed that the cold weather (it was 28 degrees F that morning in Cape Canaveral) contributed to the accident, later studies showed that the cold was the main factor in causing the SRB O-ring to fail.
Seventeen years and four days later, on Feb. 1, 2003, the shuttle Columbia was destroyed during re-entry. Some of the thermal insulating tiles on the leading edge of its wing were damaged during launch, and did not protect the shuttle from the intense heat of re-entry, resulting in the breakup of the orbiter over Texas. Among those lost was Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut.
These incidents serve to remind us that the exploration of space can not only be rewarding and exciting, but risky and dangerous as well. On this 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, we remember all those who made the ultimate sacrifice to advance our understanding of "the final frontier."
Challenger Crew: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
Columbia Crew: Rick Husband, Bill McCool, Mike Anderson, Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark.
