Discussion Challenger Disaster 30th Anniversary

[boogabooga]

Tomorrow (Jan. 28) is the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

This is a sad week in NASA history.

The Challenger:

Today was the 49th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire (Jan. 27 1967)

Monday is the 13th anniversary of the Columbia accident (February 1, 2003)

 

[GLS]

I always found this video interesting: the engineer in me obviously likes all the camera angles and information, but it's really weird listening to the almost robotic voice of Mike Curie narrating the destruction of this machine, which was carrying people like you and me.

 

[Linguofreak]

the almost robotic voice of Mike Curie

Good grief that hits the uncanny valley. His intonation is something that I'd only ever before heard from text-to-speech programs, and had taken for less than perfect operation of those programs rather than for a faithful reproduction of anyone's actual speaking voice.

 

[Andy44]

I was in school the day this happened. My science teacher told us that morning that "space shuttle blew up". He said it like he was reporting a fender bender. In those days nobody had smart phones and there was no way to get news from outside the school building unless you were in the teachers' lounge.

So I figured it was probably some minor issue and a launch scrub. The science teacher was a bit of a knob, prone to making flippant nonsense remarks.

So as I got off the school bus and stepped into my house I was utterly shocked to see the replay on the TV. My aunt was sitting there watching it all day, but for me the shock and horror was bran new. That was HUGE. At the time the shuttle seemed so awesome and futuristic to me that it was unthinkable for this to happen.

Mini-rant: It always bugs me that whenever that film is shown there is an explosion sound at the moment of breakup, which makes no sense as the vehicle was miles away from any microphones on the ground at that point. I know that is cheap History channel-type shows they often sync up sounds to distant visuals to dumb it down for the viewer, but I expect more from an investigation report.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I was in 7th grade at the time. A lot of the teachers rolled TVs into the classrooms so everyone could watch. Christa McAuliffe from New Hampshire was going to be the first educator in space and so it was a big deal. Saw it live. I remember ABC was covering the launch and kept panning to McAuliffe's parents in the viewing stands.

There are some things you will never forget in your life; sometimes things are so shocking and tragic that you'll remember every last detail of the moment. This is one of them for me.

 

[Star Voyager]

Vice President Bush and John Glenn address the launch team.

 

[Linguofreak]

Mini-rant: It always bugs me that whenever that film is shown there is an explosion sound at the moment of breakup, which makes no sense as the vehicle was miles away from any microphones on the ground at that point. I know that is cheap History channel-type shows they often sync up sounds to distant visuals to dumb it down for the viewer, but I expect more from an investigation report.

Are you talking about GLS's video? I'm pretty sure the noise at breakup is the one mentioned here:

T+73.191

A sudden brilliant flash is photographed between the shuttle and the external tank. TV tracking camera: Fireballs merge into bright yellow and red mass of flame that engulfs Challenger. A single crackling noise is heard on air-to-ground radio. Engineers later say the sound is the result of ground transmitters searching the shuttle's frequency range for a signal.

Emphasis mine.

EDIT:

It is infuriatingly difficult to find the STS-51L Flight Director's loop on the web. Most of what can be found seems to be a mix of parts of the air to ground loop with the for-the-masses launch commentary.

 

[Urwumpe]

I don't really know where I was that day. I was pretty young (7) and it did not make much urgent news here at the border to the Warsaw Pact.

But a few days later, a news article about the challenger accident was the first news article I have ever read in my life.

 

[TMac3000]

I was 7 also; this was about a year before my family moved to South Carolina from Maine. I think I have a vague memory of hearing the news from my first grade teacher, but really I was too little and ADD-ridden to remember much.

But I have seen that tape. It's almost as hard to watch as the 9/11 footage.

 

[Kyle]

I wasn't born for another eight years at the time of the Challenger accident, but my family sure felt the impacts. My grandfather worked at the OPFs (he was a processing engineer for OV-103 Discovery and OV-099 Challenger) during the accidents. He met the crew of Challenger during one of their many launch scrubs. He stood in the VAB parking lot as the accident unfolded. He came home in tears. It was a rough day at Kennedy Space Center.

 

[gattispilot]

I was and am at the same job when I heard the news

 

[n122vu]

I was in 5th grade. Another teacher came in and told our teacher what had happened. A few minutes later someone rolled a cart with a black-and-white TV into the room and we watched the TV coverage and the replays. I was shocked and heartbroken. At age 10, I loved the shuttles even back then, and had been in awe of it ever since I watched the first launch live on TV when I was five years old. It's a day, a set of images I will never forget

 

[MaverickSawyer]

I wasn't born yet, but I still get mad when I see that. Textbook example of letting administration and bureaucracy overrule the engineers. They tend to know what they're talking about, and wouldn't voice their concerns unless there was a real issue.

 

[Lmoy]

Since we're all talking about how old we were, I was 7 when Columbia was destroyed. I don't remember it at all though. Retrospectively though, both shuttle accidents were huge tragedies and it's my hope that no such sacrifices will have to be made again in the future.

However, on a semi-related note, recently I've been seeing a lot of posts on forums and comment sections decrying NASA's "safety paranoia" and calling for a more aggressive and less risk-averse approach to space travel. Do people just not remember all the accidents and dead astronauts, or do they not care? It's odd.

 

[Traveller]

...

 

[captjdk]

Unfortunately, I remember all three, yes, im old. For the Challenger disaster we were sitting at Pope AFB getting ready to go fly some airdrops with the army. We watched it Base Ops. Within an hour we were refueled and waiting to be released to Patrick for SAR operations. We sat for a couple of hours until the AF determined there wouldnt be any need for us.

 

[artisthos]

I was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a member of the press covering Voyager II's encounter with Uranus. It was early in the morning at the lab being shocked into seeing what we saw on the TV. Everyone wanted to know and later we found out about the O rings. My cousin help map the debri across Texas. Thank you for a great group and I look forward to many space adventures.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

However, on a semi-related note, recently I've been seeing a lot of posts on forums and comment sections decrying NASA's "safety paranoia" and calling for a more aggressive and less risk-averse approach to space travel. Do people just not remember all the accidents and dead astronauts, or do they not care? It's odd.

There are two opposing forces acting. One is NASA's mission to pursue human space exploration activities that, by definition, have never been attempted before, and therefore entail risk, no matter how "safety paranoid" NASA may be. The other is the pressure on NASA to be seen making progress so it can continue to secure funding.

On one extreme, if NASA attempted to stamp out every last possible risk, we'd never leave the ground, as the safest thing to do is simply not fly. Risks therefore must be categorized and must be addressed in a reasonable fashion. NASA, being a political beast, got into the bad habit of shrugging off everything to "the risks of spaceflight", ignoring fatal known risks that, in hindsight, could have been addressed and defeated without loss of life.

Problems with O-ring burn through at low temperatures was known and documented. They knew what range of temperatures were potentially dangerous. Simply adding a minimum ambient pad temperature criterion could have prevented the Challenger accident. Similar things could have been done with regard to foam strikes that might have saved Columbia. These were known problems and mitigation strategies existed for both. Unfortunately these mitigation strategies didn't get implemented until astronauts died.

Human spaceflight is inherently risky, even if NASA was as attentive as it should be to all of the known risks. NASA has been guilty several times of failing to act reasonably to remedy known risks, outright ignoring risks, crossing their fingers, and hoping things go well. When NASA does this, NASA itself adds risks to an already risky venture.

 

[FrankXCassella]

Challenger go at Throttle Up . . . God Speed Challenger

I was working security police on the Air Force side protecting Pad 39 A and B pads from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Most folks do not understand their is the civilian side NASA and the Air Force Side, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. I was the Flight Commander on the night preceding the Challenger launch and had the opportunity to listen in on the audio loop as well as view from the Vertical Integration Building Launch Control Room which is where the Air Force Titian Rockets where stacked prior to getting their solid motors. I was also watching what was going on with the fuel tanking operation and the load out of the Challenger 7 crew on the closed circuit tv feed throughout the CCAFS and NASA Kennedy Space Center side. Since I had been involved with many shuttle launches I thought it strange that the countdown was going to continue due to the unusual 20 cold temperature we were getting that night. There were many icicles hanging off from the pad which I thought NASA would delay at least till the icicles melted and or where taking off from the pad. Apparently that was not the issue to the point they would delay the launch. I also remember this was the third attempt at launching this particular mission. I viewed the launch from the south cape on the air force side and approximately 72 seconds into Challengers Ascent notice the two careening solid motors had broken free from the orbiter and external tank. I also noticed that I could not see the Orbiter and or the ET. We did have a contingency operation for the shuttle (Orbiter) to RTLS (Return to launch site) however I did not see the Shuttle from the explosion that I was viewing. I also made a mental note that the two careening solid motors made the shape of a devils head and horns. Immediately the Range Safety came on the PA system and said to take cover for all who were authorized withing the restricted area. I then heard over the NASA loop for Range Command to send the destruct signals to set off the shape charges on the two careening solid motors. I could not help at that moment to realize what was reallying going on. I saw Christa McAuliffe's mother and father on the video closed circuit tv shed a tear and new that the vehicle had exploded. The next several weeks and months seemed to be of recover of debris etc and eventually the crew remains. I remember hearing the recovery crews talk about when they found the remains of the crew compartment that the emergency oxygen system was manually activated and possible the crew had somehow survived the initial break up from the accident. I later learned that that was so and also was able to see Richard Feynman, theoretical scientist who was a Professor from Cal Tech do his famous O Ring experiment in front of the television audience which I attended. All of us that tragic day will never forget the Challenger 7.