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On Jan. 28, 1986, seven astronauts were killed when the Challenger space shuttle exploded shortly after launch. After launch, a booster engine broke apart, according to NASA. Just 73 seconds into the flight, the space shuttle exploded in midair, breaking apart.Jan 28, 2021
Hot gases from the rocket had slipped past the O-rings in two of the SRB segments. … At roughly the 73-second mark after launch, the right SRB triggered the rupture of the external fuel tank. Liquid hydrogen and oxygen ignited, and the explosion enveloped Challenger.
Challenger Explosion: How Groupthink and Other Causes Led to the Tragedy. Seven lives were lost as communications failed in the face of public pressure to proceed with the launch despite dangerously cold conditions. By January of 1986 America was already bored with spaceflight. It was, in part, NASA’s own fault.
Previously, the last known words from the Challenger were those heard from Commander Dick Scobee to ground controllers, when he responded ″Roger, go at throttle up,″ confirming that the shuttle’s main engines had been raised to full power.
They said the astronauts’ remains were crushed inside the debris and could not be recognized as human. Federal investigators studying the wreckage believe the crew compartment fell intact nearly nine miles to the surface of the sea, where it shattered on impact.
The seven crew members of the space shuttle Challenger probably remained conscious for at least 10 seconds after the disastrous Jan. 28 explosion and they switched on at least three emergency breathing packs, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Monday.
After the 1986 Challenger disaster, four families of the seven astronauts killed reached out-of-court settlements with the Justice Department for a total of $7.7 million. … The wife of Challenger pilot Michael Smith sued NASA in 1987.
McAuliffe continues to serve as a founding director for the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. He has two children, Scott and Caroline, with his first wife, Christa; they were nine and six, respectively, when she died, as a result of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
NASA yesterday named a retired Navy admiral to lead an independent investigation into the incident, which took the lives of all seven crew members on board. The remains of all seven astronauts who were killed in the space shuttle Columbia tragedy have been recovered, US officials said last night.
Later, physicians concluded the crew died from asphyxia due to inhalation of toxic gases from the fire. They almost certainly had gone unconscious before dying.
The fated crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia could have been saved in theory, according to a NASA engineer, who spoke to the BBC. Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon and six other crew members perished when their space shuttle attempted reentry into Earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2003.
Today, Marcia Jarvis-Tinsley resides on a ranch in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and serves as the Founding Director for the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. She had remarried, but her second husband, Ronald Keith Tinsley, passed away as well, in 2017.
NASA had always insisted that the seven crew members had died instantly in the explosion. Challenger had been destroyed when it reached 48,000 feet above the earth’s surface but continued to shoot into the sky for another 25 secnds before plummeting into the Atlantic.
Families of four of the seven crew members killed in the Challenger explosion have settled with the government for total damages exceeding $750,000 for each family, with 60% of the sum to be provided by Morton Thiokol Inc., maker of the solid rocket boosters on the space shuttle, an Administration source said Monday.
Millions watched the disaster as it occurred because the world inspired by McAuliffe, 37, who was the first American civilian to board a space shuttle. She was chosen from among 11,000 teachers to board the Challenger mission as part of a NASA program called the “Teacher in Space Project.”
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Shuttle Grounded by O-Ring Problem : Space: NASA says heat-searing is minor, but puts off Endeavour launch until solution is in place. The space shuttle Endeavour was grounded indefinitely Friday so NASA can solve the problem of singed O-rings discovered on the solid rocket boosters after two recent missions.
These four spouses and six children shared in cash and annuities that cost $7,735,000. The government paid 40 percent; Thiokol, 60 percent. They had relied on informal advice from the law partner of McAuliffe’s husband, Steven, and they talked only with the government, never directly with the company.