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Jan 28, 2021 · It was 35 years ago today (Jan. 28) that the most defining accident of NASA happened, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded after launch.
- The Fallen Heroes of Human Spaceflight
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- Long History for Calif. Launch Pad
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- EVAtion
Jam packed issues filled with the latest cutting-edge...
- Infographic
NASA's space shuttle Challenger accident was a devastating...
- The Fallen Heroes of Human Spaceflight
Jan 28, 2016 · The Challenger disaster grounded NASA’s space shuttle program for nearly three years. “But look at how we flew after,” says Robert Cabana, former NASA astronaut and director of the Kennedy ...
Jan 28, 2016 · The NASA family lost seven of its own on the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, when a booster engine failed, causing the Shuttle Challenger to break apart just 73 seconds after launch.
- Challenger Needed to Rekindle America's Romance with Space
- The 'Space For Everyone' Dream Shattered That Morning
- Cold Temperatures Caused A Tiny O-Ring to Malfunction
- Info Relayed to Decision Makers Was Incomplete and Misleading
- NASA Should Have Delayed The Launch, But PR Concerns Won Out
- Spaceflight After Challenger
By January of 1986 America was already bored with spaceflight. It was, in part, NASA’s own fault. The government agency had debuted the space shuttle program five years earlier with an aggressive public-relations message that the reusable vehicles would make access to space both affordable and routine. Projected frequency: more than 50 flights a ye...
But 73 seconds after Challenger’s launch, that dream quickly became a nightmare. Challenger disappeared as white vapor bloomed from the external tank. Spectators were stunned. Teachers scrambled to get their kids out to recess. And images of the grotesque, Y-shaped explosion dominated the news cycle for days to come. For the first time in its histo...
In the months that followed the accident, a Presidential Commission led by former Secretary of State William P. Rogers—the so-called Rogers Commission—went through every piece of data to identify the disaster’s root cause. What they found was a very different launch than the one people had watched on TV. Pictures of the shuttle on the launch pad sh...
To find an answer, the Rogers Commission interviewed engineers and decision-makers at both NASA and Morton Thiokol, the company that built the solid rocket boosters. What it found was a stunning lack of communication—almost as if officials had been playing a game of broken telephone, with the result that incomplete and misleading information reache...
The space shuttle was the realization of NASA’s long-standing goal of reusability. Touted as the program that would truly open space for human exploration, it promised to turn spaceflight into something akin to air travel. Orbiters would be refurbished between missions to keep the overall program cost down and number of missions per year up. But fi...
It was nearly three years before NASA launched another shuttle mission. In the interim, a handful of changes were recommended—some technical, but most focusing on repairing the damaged communications pathways, management culture and safety organization at NASA. America’s relationship with spaceflight would be harder to fix. Challenger was the begin...
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Jan 26, 2018 · Missions—to conduct research, repair satellites, and build the International Space Station—failed to ignite popular imaginations the way a moon landing had. For many Americans, shuttle flights carried little of the bravado and romance of the Apollo era. The launch on January 28, 1986, was different.
Jan 24, 2021 · The Challenger disaster should best be remembered for the sacrifice of seven astronauts who died in the accident. But for those currently in leadership positions, it should also be remembered...
Sep 9, 2024 · Challenger disaster, explosion of the U.S. space shuttle orbiter Challenger, shortly after its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 28, 1986, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, who had won a national screening to become the first teacher in space.
