He was meeting senior aides in the Oval Office when he learned of the disaster. President Reagan has put off his state of the union address. Speaking before the launch, she said: "One of the things I hope to bring back into the classroom is to make that connection with the students that they too are part of history, the space programme belongs to them and to try to bring them up with the space age." Christa McAuliffe, 37, married with two children, was to be the first school teacher in space - picked from among 10,000 entries for a competition. The shuttle crew was led by Commander Dick Scobee, 46. High winds, then icicles caused the launch to be postponed from 22 January.īut Nasa officials insist safety remains their top priority and there was no pressure to launch the shuttle today. The Challenger's flight, the 25th by a shuttle, had already been delayed because of bad weather. President Ronald Reagan has described the tragedy as "a national loss". In 25 years of space exploration seven people have died - today that total has been doubled. The danger from falling debris prevented rescue boats reaching the scene for more than an hour. The astronauts' families, at the airbase, and millions of Americans witnessed the world's worst space disaster live on TV. The five men and two women - including the first teacher in space - were just over a minute into their flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida when the Challenger blew up. The American space shuttle, Challenger, has exploded killing all seven astronauts on board. In the aftermath of the Columbia disaster, the space shuttle program was grounded until July 16, 2005, when the space shuttle Discovery was put into orbit.1986: Seven dead in space shuttle disaster The Columbia could have stayed in orbit until February 15 and the already planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis could have been moved up as early as February 10, leaving a short window for repairing the wing or getting the crew off of the Columbia. In August 2003, an investigation board issued a report that revealed that it in fact would have been possible either for the Columbia crew to repair the damage to the wing or for the crew to be rescued from the shuttle. Strangely, worms that the crew had used in a study that were stored in a canister aboard the Columbia did survive. Making the tragedy even worse, two pilots aboard a search helicopter were killed in a crash while looking for debris. Debris and the remains of the crew were found in more than 2,000 locations across East Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Residents in the area heard a loud boom and saw streaks of smoke in the sky. the shuttle disintegrated over northeast Texas, near Dallas. One minute later, the last communication from the crew was heard, and at 9 a.m. The first debris began falling to the ground in west Texas near Lubbock at 8:58 a.m. (Credit: Bruce Weaver/AP Photo) But 73 seconds after Challenger’s launch, that dream quickly became a nightmare. Because the heat-resistant tiles covering the left wing’s leading edge had been damaged or were missing, wind and heat entered the wing and blew it apart. The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lift off. By 11:00 a.m., NASA engineers had determined that the ice had melted and the Challenger. It wasn’t until 10 minutes later, at 8:53 a.m.–as the shuttle was 231,000 feet above the California coastline traveling at 23 times the speed of sound–that the first indications of trouble began. It was a cold morning and much of the shuttle was covered with ice. READ MORE: Space Exploration: Timeline and TechnologiesĬolumbia reentered the earth’s atmosphere on the morning of February 1. The space shuttle Columbia, with a seven-member crew aboard, soars toward a nine-day mission devoted to life sciences research. Their concerns were not addressed in the two weeks that Columbia spent in orbit because NASA management believed that even if major damage had been caused, there was little that could be done to remedy the situation. Although similar incidents had occurred on three prior shuttle launches without causing critical damage, some engineers at the space agency believed that the damage to the wing could cause a catastrophic failure. Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the shuttle’s propellant tank and hit the edge of the shuttle’s left wing.Ĭameras focused on the launch sequence revealed the foam collision but engineers could not pinpoint the location and extent of the damage. Columbia finally launched on January 16, 2003, with a crew of seven. The Columbia‘s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was delayed numerous times for a variety of reasons over nearly two years. On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up while entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board.
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