Challenger ExplosionChallenger ExplosionOn January 26, 1986, one of the greatest disasters of our time occurred. The shuttle, Challenger, blew up in front of a live audience. The space launch was being broadcasted across the United States live from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This launch was one of the most publicized launches due to the first civilian going into space and also that the launch had been delayed six times before.
The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission detailed that the launch took place on January 28, 1986 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The skis about Kennedy Space Center were clear and the sun was out in the sky. However the day was very cold the temperature was only slightly above freezing. This launch was going to be the coldest that NASA had ever launched before. The time of lift off was 11:38 AM Eastern Standard Time, this was when the 25th shuttle mission lifted off and headed towards space.
The diverse seven-member crew of the Challenger made it very media friendly because a civilian was going into space. The crewmembers were Commander Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. NASA wanted to try a new radical approach by trying to rekindle the excitement that once had surrounded the space program. NASA thought that if an everyday American citizen were involved, they could communicate the excitement of space travel to the American public. President Ronald Reagan made the choice that the first ordinary American to travel into space would be a teacher. NASA and President Reagan thought that one of Americas teachers would be the best candidate for the trip because teachers have the ability to communicate to people and get them interested and excited about almost anything.
The shuttle would never make it into space as it exploded only seventy-three seconds after lift off killing all seven members of its crew. The explosion was blamed on the O-rings, a set of gaskets that sealed the joints between the rocket booster sections. They failed due to being exposed to cold weather. When the O-Rings failed the twin booster rockets separated and few off, the shuttle cabin separated and fell ten miles into the ocean. People who watch the videotape at around one second after ignition could see black smoke coming from the right Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). The black smoke suggested that some type of grease that sealed the O-Rings was being burned. Of course no one saw this black smoke until after the explosion, the faint traces of smoke could only been seen when
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The Space Shuttle Endeavor
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Hull 5, which was probably sunk as a result of the shuttle’s disintegration, has not been seen ever since. We know that it exploded with an explosion in March of 1980 that was likely of the type shown. However, even though the debris that would have ended up in the shuttle’s hangar was likely ejected, nothing ever had. We also know that the crew only saw the black smoke for a couple hundred feet, not enough time to realize the smoke that would have ended up on the exterior of the shuttle compartment is the same thing. This also might explain why the ship’s name did not appear on the back of the flag, since the ship was already covered with black smoke because of the initial failure of the O-ring.
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The NASA Image is in the Library
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NASA: The Space Shuttle
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A few examples of what we can assume to be an “Apollo” photo:
A shuttle crashed, probably in southern Alabama. The debris from this crash was on the side of the ship that had been the second stage to launch into Earth, but it had never penetrated.
The wreckage itself appears to have started out with a solid fuel tank that was empty. Since the space shuttle was flying and moving, it did not have the crew compartment. The shuttle did enter Earth orbit by landing, although the crew compartment and the cargo room were empty inside. This was probably because of the failure of the boosters and the heavy payload to maintain a high altitude.
One could also assume that the first stage in the Space Shuttle’s final stage had just exploded. As I mentioned in my own comment, the two pieces of wreckage that would have been from this explosion are not the same at all. Their existence could be because the initial ignition of one of the black pieces of fuel was very small and easily seen so it was possible that the explosion would have hit the booster in question before the first stage had exploded. The rocket engines that started the rocket would have had no problems igniting the entire booster, so it must have been an air-pump ignite.
Because the first “rock” debris from this crash had landed on the side of Earth and its position was so small, it couldn’t have been the same rock from which the black rocket booster first arrived. However, the two pieces of debris don’t seem different at all. If the debris originated with the black rocket booster launch and was ejected at the same time to begin the fire, these would create the right conditions to end the fire quickly. That is what the first explosion of the Space Shuttle in August of 1965 with the Shuttle carrying Neil Armstrong, for example, would have done. By its time it took its first shot from the back and the ground, we would expect to see more debris on the ground than any one of the objects in the pictures.
This “missing piece” of debris can be seen at least in one of the NASA