35th anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger

[Commander Wallace]

It was 35 years ago today that the Shuttle Challenger was lost along with it's talented 7 crew members. Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Gregory jarvis and teacher Christa McAuliff were killed when joints in a solid rocket booster failed causing a catastrophic explosion that destroyed Challenger and killed her crew.

Lack of oversight resulted in Morton Thiokol engineers, manufacturers of the solid rocket boosters, being ignored in their recommendations not to launch due to freezing conditions the night before the launch of the Challenger. The engineers believed the cold, icy conditions compromised the integrity of the solid fuel rocket boosters. The Rubber O rings sealing the booster segments were never designed for extreme cold weather.

It was the same lack of oversight that would doom the Space Shuttle Columbia On Feb. 1, 2003.


https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2021/01/28/challenger-35-day-remembrance-ceremony/4294111001/



Rest in peace, brave crew.

[stork100]

Last Rendez-Vous (Ron's Piece)

From the 1986 album Rendez-Vous by French electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre. From Wikipedia:

"The last track on the album was originally scheduled to include a saxophone part recorded by astronaut Ron McNair on the Space Shuttle Challenger, which would have made it the first piece of music to be recorded in space. However, on January 28, 1986, 73 seconds after lift-off, the shuttle disintegrated and the entire Challenger crew were killed. The track was dedicated to McNair and the other astronauts on board Challenger".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6gLDuFRVjA

[Buddahaid]

Damn that makes me feel old. Watched it live.

[Platapus]

I was working the swing shift at Offutt AFB, Nebraska when we got the news. After getting home after midnight, I spent the next six hours glued to the TV set watching this terrible accident over and over again.



For me, it is one of those "I won't forget where I was when I learned about it". I can still remember exactly where I was and who was in the room when we first got the word.

[Skybird]

Heck, i was 18 then, turning 19, just having finsihed school since a couple of days. I still remember it. The Orbiter was an icon of my youth. The proud name woke associations that turned the orbiter into somethign that was almost invincible. The harder the wakeup call was then. Lesson learned.

Just a couple of weeks later the LaBelle in Berlin would go up right in my back after we just had passed its entry.

That were intense months.

[Jimbuna]

Damn that makes me feel old. Watched it live.

Me too but with one subtle difference...I am old.

[Aktungbby]

^ It only get's worse BBY...and it ain't subtle! :wah:https://i.dawn.com/primary/2014/08/53e00ad34b318.jpg?r=481460297

[mapuc]

I was 20 years old I remember they(Swedish tv) showed the launch live.

I remember that I didn't react when it exploded. Like I couldn't comprehend what just had unfold right in front of my eyes.

Markus

[les green01]

i was in the 7th grade since there was a teacher onboard they let my class watch it on tv i don't remember any of us kids having a reaction

[AVGWarhawk]

I remember this day like yesterday. I had just left a class at the University of MD College Park and headed in to the Student Union building. As I was walking the halls I notice a lot of the girls crying and looking at the TV that hung around the hallways. It was here I realized what had occurred. Sad day indeed.

[Commander Wallace]

Final thoughts.


I'm very sorry that many of you are still troubled by the Challenger disaster. It seems much like the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, People remember exactly where they were upon hearing of Challenger. What's worse is that the loss of the Challenger crew was preventable. The crew was sacrificed in the name of expediency, for nothing more than to maintain an ambitious schedule.

Admittedly, I have only been able to briefly read the biographical information before having to look away because of the incredible degree of loss associated with their deaths.

Judith Reznik was an Electrical, software and Biomedical Engineer. Judith was a pilot and of course, an Astronaut. Recognized while still a child for her brilliance, Judith was accepted at Carnegie Mellon University after being one of only 16 women in the history of the U.S to attain a perfect score on her Sat's at that time.

Ellison Onizuka graduated with a Bachelors and Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Un iversity of Colorado, in Boulder. Lt. Col Onizuka was a test pilot at the Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force base in California.

The rest of the biographical information is available on the crew so I'll go no further. The rest of the Bio's are just as impressive. This crew and others in the military and space program at NASA were and are the absolute cream of the crop. This crew may well have been the best of the best which makes their deaths all the more painful. Because of the absolute brilliance and caliber of individuals such as this, Space flight and Shuttle launches were routine, their successes a foregone conclusion.

We forgot it took the courage, daring and skill of people like General Chuck Yeager,whom we just recently lost, and others just like him, to make this all possible and forge new frontiers and make the leap into the unknown. Hopefully, we have learned the lessons and costs associated with arrogance.


May their sacrifices and accomplishments never be forgotten.

[Buddahaid]

Everything is preventable in hindsight. We were riding a wave.

[Aktungbby]

Everything is preventable in hindsight. We were riding a wave.too bad we could'nt apply a little 2020 vision in the previous year just ended...:doh:

[Platapus]

I hope that we learned that there is no such thing as a routine space launch.

[Skybird]

I hope that we learned that there is no such thing as a routine space launch.
Yes. And of all environments man can go into, space is the most hostile and lethal and unforgivable one. Everything there is tries to kill you quickly or in a longer run.

[Jeff-Groves]

I was 28 at the time.
I lived and worked near West Palm Beach, Florida.
That's around 150 miles south of the launch site.

I was with a group of people outside of the cafeteria at a training center
near Delray Beach. We were watching the launch as we could see the smoke as the Shuttles went up.

So We saw the tragedy with our own eyes.
Not something I'll ever forget witnessing.

:nope:

[Aktungbby]

The one thing that still sticks in my mind is the picture of school teacher/astronaut Christa McCauliff's https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Christa_McAuliffe_Experiences_Weightlessness_Durin g_KC-135_Flight_-_GPN-2002-000149.jpg/200px-Christa_McAuliffe_Experiences_Weightlessness_Durin g_KC-135_Flight_-_GPN-2002-000149.jpg mom, Grace, looking up in stunned bewilderment at the launch. It gave me chills 35 years ago and still does to this day: the more so as I have a vivacious motivated only daughter and cannot even fathom such a loss.https://www.concordmonitor.com/getattachment/4c10f288-d4e2-4e46-a256-773cf85bb783/RayChrista-cm-111418-ph03 Grace passed away in 2018 at age 95 https://www.concordmonitor.com/getattachment/ba3f28a2-0f9a-4426-99d3-9d1bbe51c34e/RayChrista-cm-111418-ph01 The story about a mother rising up and carrying her daughter’s torch, basically until the day she died, on Nov. 8. The story about the woman who went back to college and earned her teaching degree after her children had grown up and left the house. The story about the public speaker, traveling the country to stress the importance of well-funded school systems.
The story about Grace.
“She said Christa would have been delighted to see what we had done to memorialize her,” Gerulskis told me. “She was impressed. She would come to events and she wanted so much to share what her daughter would have shared if Christa had survived that trip. (Grace) could communicate with the smallest children and the older people, in their 80s and 90s, as well.” https://www.tampabay.com/resizer//OyT5vlHPBLaih4igo3LB_mlthzg=/1140x641/smart/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tbt.s3.amazonaws.com/public/56EXYAV654I6TFEGIBWI6S7HAY.jpg

[Commander Wallace]

Yes. And of all environments man can go into, space is the most hostile and lethal and unforgivable one. Everything there is tries to kill you quickly or in a longer run.


While I agree with you, there are other places just as unforgiving. Our own oceans and seas can be a dangerous place for those unprepared. Even the great lakes of the U.S can be a dangerous and treacherous place, even for those " well seasoned. "

The crew of the iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald found this out the hard way when it sank in bad weather on November 10, 1975 on Lake Superior. The Fitzgerald encountered hurricane force winds and 27 foot seas.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald

[Skybird]

I fully understand what you aim at, and I agree, but nothing is as lethal as spoacew, me thinks. In water, cold or stormy, you still float and can swim, if only for a minute or two. I also think of the deep sea, the pressure. I experienced the "deep desert". But space? The cold, the radiation, the mere light from the sun, vacuum, absence of anything life-supporting, micro meteorites, and whatever else. Nothing is as unforgiving, as space.

[Jeff-Groves]

71% of Earth is water.
5% of that has been explored.
Falling in the water is like brushing the edge of Space. One can survive given the high altitude jumps done.
Going deep in the oceans offer a different death, but still deadly!

[Platapus]

It may be easier to explore space then the depths of our oceans.

[Jeff-Groves]

It may be easier to explore space then the depths of our oceans.
You may be right given there are no currents nor volcanoes in Space.
And I doubt there are large Space Sharks and such to deal with.

[Commander Wallace]

It may be easier to explore space then the depths of our oceans.

You may be right given there are no currents nor volcanoes in Space. And I doubt there are large Space Sharks and such to deal with.


You are both more than likely right as the deepest and most remote parts of our Oceans can only be explored with specially prepared drones.

[Jimbuna]

Nothing is as unforgiving, as space.

You've obviously never met my wife!! :o

[Catfish]

You've obviously never met my wife!! :o
"And now.. for something completely different"
:rotfl2::rotfl2:

[Commander Wallace]

You've obviously never met my wife!! :o


I feel your pain. :yep:

[mapuc]

Our space adventure can be compared with a little baby who tries to take their first step. In the beginning the little child fall but in the end they will master the skill of walking.

The same with our space adventure-In the beginning there will be failure even death-But in the end we will overcome these childhood diseases.

Markus

[Buddahaid]

The oceans are far less radioactive.

[Platapus]

Humans can survive in space in a craft with Mylar sides. 5-8 pounds of pressure difference.


In the oceans? The pressure is a wee bit larger.

[Catfish]

The oceans are far less radioactive.
Fukushima, LaHague, Windscale and some others do all to solve this inequality.

[Dmitry Markov]

I was 6 years old and we were living in a small town in a western part of Russia - and I remember we were watching evening news on TV when they showed Challenger disaster. At those times we, Soviet kids, were keen on space exploration - lots of magazines, books, even tabletop games - and for me as a little kid watching such a tragedy was a deep impact. They've told about Christa McAuliffe being a teacher and that only worsened things for my heart 'cause you know when you are six or seven - a teacher is a figure like a parent... So yes - that's something I would definitely remember ((
Personally, I don't think about crews of Soyuz-1, Soyuz-11, Apollo-1, Challenger and Columbia as of Americans or Russians, but rather as of ambassadors of humankind into space.

[Platapus]

Soyuz-11 was pretty sad. :(

[Commander Wallace]

I was 6 years old and we were living in a small town in a western part of Russia - and I remember we were watching evening news on TV when they showed Challenger disaster. At those times we, Soviet kids, were keen on space exploration - lots of magazines, books, even tabletop games - and for me as a little kid watching such a tragedy was a deep impact. They've told about Christa McAuliffe being a teacher and that only worsened things for my heart 'cause you know when you are six or seven - a teacher is a figure like a parent... So yes - that's something I would definitely remember (( Personally, I don't think about crews of Soyuz-1, Soyuz-11, Apollo-1, Challenger and Columbia as of Americans or Russians, but rather as of ambassadors of humankind into space.

This was a very touching tribute to the Challenger crew. Certainly, both the U.S and Russia have seen their share of heartbreaking disasters in the space program as we all collectively mourned their tragic loses. As kids in the U.S, we also were very much into space exploration. As we all learned, the more we wanted. Kids are very much like sponges in that we all " soaked " up everything around us.

I never realized that the disasters suffered by the U.S space program had such a profound effect around the world including the former Soviet Union. Then again, why wouldn't they. You're right, we are ambassadors of mankind in space. With the vast brain trust of not only the U.S and Russia but other scientific minded countries around the world, there is no telling how far we can push our boundaries of scientific knowledge and understanding as we advance into space.

[iambecomelife]

This was a very touching tribute to the Challenger crew. Certainly, both the U.S and Russia have seen their share of heartbreaking disasters in the space program as we all collectively mourned their tragic loses. As kids in the U.S, we also were very much into space exploration. As we all learned, the more we wanted. Kids are very much like sponges in that we all " soaked " up everything around us.

I never realized that the disasters suffered by the U.S space program had such a profound effect around the world including the former Soviet Union. Then again, why wouldn't they. You're right, we are ambassadors of mankind in space. With the vast brain trust of not only the U.S and Russia but other scientific minded countries around the world, there is no telling how far we can push our boundaries of scientific knowledge and understanding as we advance into space.

Mikhail Gorbachev said some very kind words in the wake of the tragedy; despite the competition between the USA & USSR this was clearly recognized as a human tragedy, like all other space mishaps.

I don't remember the day of the disaster but I do remember the animations ABC News showed during the investigation - probably from around late 1986 - 1987. I was a toddler but it still made a big impact on me-the videos of this amazing machine, the smiling crew, and then that awful white explosion. I drew it often in the sketch pads my parents bought me when I was 4-5 years old.

Along with the "Herald of Free Enterprise" the Afghanistan/USSR conflict, and the Northwest Airlines disaster, the Challenger was the news event I remember the best from my preschool days.

[Commander Wallace]

Mikhail Gorbachev said some very kind words in the wake of the tragedy; despite the competition between the USA & USSR this was clearly recognized as a human tragedy, like all other space mishaps.

I don't remember the day of the disaster but I do remember the animations ABC News showed during the investigation - probably from around late 1986 - 1987. I was a toddler but it still made a big impact on me-the videos of this amazing machine, the smiling crew, and then that awful white explosion. I drew it often in the sketch pads my parents bought me when I was 4-5 years old.

Along with the "Herald of Free Enterprise" the Afghanistan/USSR conflict, and the Northwest Airlines disaster, the Challenger was the news event I remember the best from my preschool days.


I am hardly surprised that Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev would have expressed his sympathies as that's how he was / is. This is undoubtedly why former president Ronald Regan held Mikhail is such high regard not only as a head of state but also as a person. I'm sure Mikhail thought the same way as he and his wife Raisa visited the Reagan's at their ranch. I well remember Mikhail standing right beside England's Margaret Thatcher at Ronald Reagan's funeral.


If you were drawing this out on your sketch pads, then you were trying to make sense of this tragedy and dealing with your own grief. I'm sure from what you said that this was very traumatizing for you at such a young age and I'm deeply saddened that this tragedy was an introduction of sorts for you to the space program.