The Worst Part Of The Challenger Disaster Wasn't What You Think

From faulty O-rings to deadly weather and foreboding warnings. The engineers closest to the Challenger Space Shuttle knew what was wrong — so why didn’t NASA step in?

#Disaster #Challenger #NASA

The O-rings | 0:00
18 degree weather | 1:39
String of delays | 2:56
The disaster | 4:11
The trapped crew | 5:12
The grim recovery | 6:15
Engineers felt responsible | 7:27
The crew was conscious? | 8:25

[GrungeHQ]

What do you think of NASA's decisions leading up to the launch of the Challenger?

[C.O._Jones]

The most awful thing I noticed at the time was just after the explosion, the families of the astronauts who had been watching the launch stopped cheering and looked confused. In the background audio, I could hear some news cretin shouting, “Get the cameras on the families! Get the cameras on the families!” to ensure capturing the moment it dawned on them exactly what had happened. 37 years later, and that *still* makes me angry.

[Tim]

One objection: The O-rings were not faulty, they were MISUSED. They were never intended to be used in such cold temperatures, and the engineers said so.

[augustuswayne]

The worse part about the accident was that it happened at all . NASA knew it was very risky to launch in cold weather .

[perrythomasmusic]

I knew the Challenger Crew very well and I had just started working for the Space Program, about three months prior to the disaster. Also, one of the crew members went to our church, so it was a depressing day that I will never forget. We had to do what is called "bench reviews" with the crew, usually fairly close to the launch date, so we would see them fairly often, depending on which one of our engineers were assigned to the flight. I remember thinking that they shouldn't attempt this launch in such cold temperatures. I am an engineer, and o-rings are pretty much a common problem with just about everything that contains an o-ring, when it comes to certain high or low temperatures. I was sort of expecting the launch to be scrubbed again, but it wasn't. I figured that MT new what they were doing and wouldn't put the crew in danger, but I was wrong. I was watching the launch at Johnson Space Center, on the large viewing screen on site, and as I watched, I was standing next to one of the other Crew Compartment Configuration Engineers. At full throttle up, it looked very abrupt, but the camera shot was really close, so I turned and said to him, "Didn't that look really abrupt to you?" Just as I said it, the camera shot and angle was further out, and I could see that the vehicle had exploded. My heart literally sank. I felt like I had just lost my best friend or a family member. We were all depressed for a long time afterwards. We worked on simulation flights for two years, with some of us, including myself, began working on Space Station projects. I am now retired, but I still follow the space program fairly closely and I hope that we eventually regain the pioneering spirit that we once had. Our country needs a common goal, something to unite us again.

[scottcharney]

There's a brief shot at the beginning of the video of a woman in blue watching the liftoff. That's Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup. They had become close friends during the training process. In 2007, she flew on a shuttle launch, as part of the Educator Astronaut Program. Thus, twenty-one years after Christa McAuliffe died, Barbara Morgan essentially finished the mission for her friend.

[TrussttN]

This is the best example of what happens when management ignores engineers.

[dominickcabal]

I was a tree surgeon in Melbourne, FL on that day and I was 90' in the air on a boom truck topping a pine tree. I witnessed the launch as it happened and the explosion sank my heart! That was history in the making and I saw it in real time...

[juliesczesny]

My dad was one of the engineers, who'd designed the original space shuttle orbiters, pre-Kennedy. The entire crew cabin was designed to come off the rest of the ship, with the parachutes packed right between the cabin and the shuttle bay. That's why you couldn't enter directly. After President Kennedy changed the mission to the moon, Space Shuttle Orbiter was put behind the Apollos. My dad said that's why the Apollos went together so quickly, as he worked for Rockwell: They used the Shuttle as a template for the moon mission, and the cabin, became the Command Module, CM.
Hope this helps out: Kennedy had us do it all backwards, to what was planned. Which is what contributed to us returning to the moon, go to the back burner.
Also, the only way that NASA could afford the Space Shuttles, was to involve the Military, and take their money. AND the first thing the Military Complex did: REMOVE all the safety equipment for the Astronauts to survive any explosive accidents! Said it wasn't needed. My dad ranted and raved over it for nearly a month, because all the Engineers could see the loss of at least one shuttle happening! Challenger blowing up, literally took his life, day by day. He felt that he'd failed, "the boys, " never mind that they saved, "the boys, " during Apollo 13. I will always miss him.

[therealhellkitty]

I remember Richard Feynman at one of the hearings soaking some o-rings in ice water, taking them out and snapping them in his fingers to demonstrate the problem with material cohesion at close to zero temperatures. He made his point.

[ashleybonanno]

I was at home sick from school when I saw this on television. I was only in second grade, but I remember this like it was yesterday. It's not something anyone could ever forget 🥺

[DUNKIN_DEAN]

I recall that I was in a college algebra class when this tragic disaster occurred. The instructor turned on the TV, so we could watch the news reports. My classmates and I were terribly shaken and, outside in the hallways, people shuffled about like quiet ghosts, not saying anything. Some were crying. It was eerily quiet. Most went home; I know I did.
I’ll never forgive NASA for neglecting those astronauts’ safety. It should never have happened.

[kathymolloy]

I watched this from the beach near the Cape. It was so devastating, something I'll never forget.

[Driver]

I was home from school that day and watched the launch live on tv. I remember saying “umm, mom, it just blew up.” She came in the living room and asked me if I was ok. I remember saying I was but was sad for the astronauts. Hearing they were most likely alive till impact is heartbreaking. ☹️

[glennleslie]

The worst thing of the Challenger disaster was the fact that all of their loved ones saw it happen in those bleachers.. Absolutely horrific.

[jbrubin]

As a kid who was in middle school in New Hampshire, this was an event I’ll never forget.
The cacophony that broke out, students and teachers alike is something I’ll never forget nor ever could describe
Nor how scary it was to see our teachers looking as equally stunned as we were. The tears screams, punching of every matt in our gym dept, etc. followed.
Along with a hatred of O-rings, I silently count to 74 seconds, for every launch to this day. Manned or unmanned.

[hbofbyu]

Roger Boisjoly spoke to my engineering class in 1990 and I vividly remember him describing the worst day of his life and the details of the conference call they had with NASA before the launch. The helplessness and the peer/institutional/ pressure to conform or lose your job. Afterwards, others used him as a scapegoat to try and save their own skin. It was when I started to understand what institutional evil is and how good people can do horrible things with diffused responsibility.
"The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[margaretalbrecht]

The part that infuriated me most was the disrespectful way that NASA treated the families. When they'd say things like they didn't want to give out details to protect the familes' privacy, I understood. And then the families started to openly say how all their requests for information were being blocked and the details kept from them.

[a.w.thompson]

It's unforgivable that seven people died because management **gambled** on a safe launch despite being told by engineers that they were going to kill all aboard.
The accident also damaged the program and destroyed a shuttle.
It reminds me of the Greek myth of Icarus, flying too close to the sun and melting his wax and feather wings despite being warned of the danger.

[BBT]

Allan McDonald was at the Cape (from Morton Thiokol) and he too was part of the team who recommended not launching. It wasn’t just Boisjoly! Both men had the strength and courage to drive NASA to a decision NOT to launch, unfortunately the man who was head over this main decision was Larry Mulloy, telling some of the engineers to “take off your engineering hat and put in your management hat”.

It’s amazing how that one move, ended the lives of 7 people