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28/1/26
Challenger Disaster
On this day in 1986 it was the Challenger Disaster. This was when the Space Shuttle called Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after lift off, killing all seven people on board. Space Shuttles had been going up into space successfully since 1981, it was the 25th mission.
On the 28th January 1986 six astronauts, and for the first time a civilian (a ‘normal’ person, not a fully trained astronaut) who was a teacher got into one of the Space Shuttles to launch up into space.
People weren’t as excited as they had been about the Space Shuttle Programme so a teacher going up into space was a way to spark enthusiasm for it again! There had been a competition to choose the teacher who got to go to space, which was won by Christa McAuliffe.
But it wasn’t meant to be. Challenger exploded with millions of people watching on tv and people watching in person at the Kennedy Space Centre. It was a tragedy that grounded the Space Shuttle Programme for over two and a half years.
What caused the explosion is complicated. The morning of the launch was incredibly cold and there was ice on the launchpad. Because of this a rubber O-ring seal on the right Solid Rocket Booster failed. It was too cold and became stiff so didn’t seal properly and let hot gas escape and caused the explosion. The Solid Rocket Boosters were only needed for two minutes of the Space Shuttles journey. That is 120 seconds. It failed after 73 seconds. It would have only been needed for another 47 seconds.
The real tragedy was that people were warned that there might be a problem, and the launch went ahead anyway. The engineers knew that the O-rings might not work correctly in such cold conditions. They warned those in charge, but those warnings were ignored and it was decided to go ahead with the launch.
A report into the accident revealed this wasn’t just a one off. Safety wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have been and people had been concerned about the safety of the Solid Rocket Boosters and the O-rings in particular and had reported this. The report also said NASA sometimes took risks because people would get upset if shuttle launches were delayed.
After the disaster NASA had to make many changes to be much more careful with safety. The shuttle programme restarted in September 1987.
The Space Shuttle Challenger launched successfully. You can clearly see the Solid Rocket Boosters and what they were used for. It was the right one that failed.
A failure in the right Solid Rocket Booster caused the Space Shuttle to explode just 73 seconds later.
Columbia Disaster
Sadly on the 1st February 2003 there was another disaster. This time the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up when re-entering Earth after a 16 day mission up in Space.
On the 16th January Columbia launched. During this launch a large piece of insulation foam came off the external fuel tank and hit Columbia’s left wing. It created a hole in the wing, which meant super hot air was allowed in during re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere and the Shuttle broke up. Again seven astronauts were sadly killed.
Columbia had been the first space shuttle up in space and had completed 28 missions, including its final one. There were questions about if the astronauts could have been warned and have potentially fixed the hole, or have been rescued before they attempted to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. It was another tragedy. The Space Shuttle program was once again grounded for over two years until July 2005.
The Space Shuttle Columbia launching. The damage to the wing happened during this launch.
The damage on Columbia's wing meant it couldn't survive the extreme temperatures of re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
All photos and illustrations in this blog post are Whizzbots and Public Domain Images.