The Challenger Tragedy Was Way More Horrific Than People Realize

The explosion of the Challenger broke the hearts of viewers worldwide in an instant when it aired on live TV. However, the impact it had on space exploration and contemporary society at large still permeates today.

#Challenger #Disaster #History

Prelude to a disaster | 0:00
Tragedy at Cape Canaveral | 1:44
The Rogers Commission | 3:08
The O-ring | 4:43
Factors contributing to the failure | 6:11
Red flags ignored | 7:47
How Challenger changed NASA | 9:20
Challenger's legacy | 10:51

[philipsamways]

Doesnt explain why it was more horrific than people realise there is nothing new in this post

[flownspacestuffme]

One of the worst written & poorly researched commentaries about the space program and in particular the Challenger disaster. Why would anyone waste their time creating this bullshit, to anyone who's familiar with what happened, this is such rambling nonsense. First of all, there had been 9 "O" ring failures and burn throughs of the SRB joints previous to the Challenger explosion, but luckily they had been in non-critical areas. Thaikol engineers knew of the "O" ring failures in temperatures ranging from 54 degree F to 71 degrees F, Thaikol redesigned the "O" rings & joints to eliminate the failures, but NASA wanted to use up the assembled SRB's to save money. NASA flight directors were told of Thiakol engineers concerns launching in cold weather, NASA told Thiakol it was their decision and asked about their concerns. Thiakol management told their engineers to "their management hats on" and clear the SRB's for flight. The real problem I have is that both NASA and Thiakol absolutely knew of the 9 previous "O" ring failures, but NASA kept asking for hard data and proof as a reason to delay the launch. In later interviews, Roger B from Thiakol thought the SRB would explode at ignition and when it didn't, he said "we dodged another bullet", obviously that changed at the 73 second mark when the SRB strut failed and impacted the MET.

The failures in NASA & Thiakol's management cultures was horrific and ended up killing 2 Shuttle crews.

[john-ugnc]

Soon as I saw the word horrific in the title I knew it was going to be BS. But first I read the comments and they confirmed my initial thoughts. Don't waste your time watching this crap.

[woodyhogin]

Astronauts White, Chaffee & Grissom lost their lives preparing for Apollo 1. So, No. The Challenger mission was not the 1st "...loss of life during a NASA mission."

[environmentaldataexchange]

It must be repeated: Doesnt explain why it was more horrific than people realise. There is nothing new in this post.

[grahamtaylor]

The weather was too cold, and outside of the approved range. Gross negligence on the part of the launch control.

[kentbetts]

The video omits an important element of the Challenger story. When the solid rocket boosters were being assembled it was found that the round segments of the casing had been distorted during the water impact and were not longer perfectly circular. The segments did not fit well together and had to more or less be forced into position to complete the assembly work. I think this was, in conjunction with the low temperatures, to be the cause of the malfunction.

[tiaelizabetharia]

I’ll never forget that tragedy. I was watching at home with my family. We were all so excited counting down and everything. Then ended up in shock about what we were seeing. Crying and screaming. I was only 6 years old.

[banesbox]

I remember my 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Brown turning the tv off a few minutes after it exploded. This was a huge deal when it happened.

[scottenichols]

I watched it live in school. The teacher instinctively turned the TV off and the principal got on the intercom and asked all the teachers to turn it back on. So much confusion.

[RunTwoWin]

I was one of those school kids who watch this live. At about 13 years old I had no clue as to the seriousness of what I was looking at but it's hard now not feel sick and want to cry every time I see something about it

[lulumoon]

For those of us who grew up in the area, whose families worked at the Cape, and watched every launch live, this tragedy with the highly promoted teacher on board was next level... And even we were shocked they launched in such weather! RIP Astronauts 🙏🕊️

[christosvoskresye]

"By all metrics, the shuttle program was another success for NASA." Bull. From the very beginning it was not about what the astronauts did, but rather about which demographic boxes NASA was able to check off. The shuttle did not really teach us anything about space that we did not already know. (Neither has the ISS. It's not like it was the first space station with long-term occupancy.) Yes, the shuttle enabled the repair of the Hubble -- but the money wasted on the shuttle could have been used to launch a fleet of Hubbles, and those with larger apertures, too, since they would not have to be scaled down to fit in the Hubble bay. "But the shuttle inspired our kids!" Ask any kid today to name an astronaut currently on the ISS. These are not the Mercury 7, for the same reason a pilot doesn't have to be Lucky Lindy to fly across the Atlantic and no one much cares about the hundreds of people who will climb Everest this year.

The shuttle is, I suppose, the only American spacecraft to be used and then discarded not because its replacement took over the job, but because it was understood to be more dangerous than the Russian spacecraft.

[philiptan]

NASA has not improved since the challenger tragedy as the debacle of the Starliner has occurred because of the poor decision made at the top during launch. The Starliner has shown several helium leakages prior to launch which have occurred multiple times before that as Boeing could not repaired it permanently. Yet, NASA approved the launch of the Starliner thinking that the problem was not “serious enough” to cancel the launch.

[tetornow]

OH, THE HORROR! I learned nothing new. I thought that I was going to learn about what the astronauts experienced after the explosion and breakup.

[robinrichards]

And, as usual with government/major companies, no one was indicted for involuntary manslaughter.

[mike]

Back in 1976 when I took a class in Aviation safety the subject of the Space Shuttle came up. It was still in development. Our instructor was a Colonel Stevens Ret., who had worked with Chuck Yeager in the USAF Office of Safety, which Yeager ran. He predicted the Challenger disaster because short cuts had been taken with the design and warnings to NASA ignored.

[tedsmith]

There was indication, quite early in the flight, that something was amiss. The combustion pressure in the defective booster was low, giving a clue that there was a leak. However, traditional thinking was that a case breach would lead to an immediate explosion, so they assumed it was an indication issue. They were, of course, wrong.

[Jeph]

No one screams 'safety' until disaster strikes. Until then safety engineers, officers or specialists are the villians who "slow things down", create inefficiencies, run-up costs, etc. A flight delay due to thunderstorms is a "delay" not a "safety hold". I spent a career in anesthesiology rarely postponing surgeries for additional heart or lung or diabetes data only to be castigated by surgeons, administrators or (especially) patients. The Michael Jacksons and Joan Rivers of the world never knew what hit 'em.

[WitchNectar]

I met Ron McNair in front of his tiny AFB house in Houston immediately after returning from a previous shuttle mission. I won't forget it.