Err but a learning for NASA..

Akshit Gupta
Nov 13, 2022
2 min read

In 1985, the Nasa space shuttle program announce a crew of 7 people to liftoff into space.

As a crew takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 28, 1986, after 73 seconds into its flight, the challenger explodes and all 7 crew members are killed. This was the first fatal accident involving an American spaceship.

This was the 25th flight of the Space Shuttle fleet and the tenth flight for the Challenger orbiter. During their time in orbit, the crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite, study Halley's Comet, and launch Christa McAuliffe. Several schools in the US were able to watch the launch and subsequent disaster live as a result of the latter, resulting in a higher amount of media interest and coverage.

Image credit- https://en.wikipedia.org

It was the failure of two redundant O-ring seals in the shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB) that caused the disaster. Rubber O-rings stiffened as a result of the record-low temperatures of launch, making them less effective at sealing joints. Within minutes of liftoff, the seals were breached, and hot pressurized gas leaked and burned through the aft attachment strut connecting the SRB to the external propellant tank. When there was only one connection point left in the booster, it rotated and pushed its upper end into the intertank section of the ET, causing its internal structure to collapse and all of its contents to vaporize and ignite. Traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92, Challenger was thrown sideways by the SRB's sudden diversion of thrust, after which aerodynamic forces tore the orbiter apart. Both SRBs detached from the now-destroyed ET and continued to fly uncontrolled until the range safety officer destroyed them.

After a three-month search-and-recovery operation, the crew compartment of the shuttle and many other fragments were recovered from the ocean floor. It is unclear when the crew died, but several are believed to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. It was impossible to survive the impact of the Image credit- https://www.bbc.com crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface since there was no escape system.

After the disaster, the Space Shuttle program was suspended for 32 months. The Rogers Commission was established by President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes were criticized for contributing to the accident. There had been a potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings since 1977. This issue has not been addressed by NASA or SRB manufacturer Morton Thiokol. The managers of NASA ignored engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in cold temperatures and did not report these technical concerns to their superiors.

NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance following the disaster, and arranged for commercial satellites to be launched from expendable launch vehicles instead of crewed orbiters. It was approved in 1987 to build a new Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, which first flew in 1992. After the accident, subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs, and all crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry.