00:01On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard.
00:13The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet, 14 kilometers above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1639.13 UTC, 1139.13 AM EST local time at the launch site.
00:32It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight. The mission, designated STS-51L, was the 10th flight for the orbiter and the 25th flight of the Space Shuttle fleet.
00:49The crew was scheduled to deploy a commercial communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Krista McAuliffe into space under the Teacher in Space Project.
01:06The latter task resulted in a higher than usual media interest in and coverage of the mission.
01:13The launch and subsequent disaster were seen live in many schools across the United States.
01:20The cause of the disaster was the failure of the primary and secondary O-ring seals in a joint in the Wright Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster .
01:32The record low temperatures on the morning of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints.
01:42Shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached and hot pressurized gas from within the SRB leaked through the joint and burned through the aft attachment strut, connecting it to the external propellant tank, ET, then into the tank itself.
02:01The collapse of the E.T.'s internal structures and the rotation of the SRB that followed through the shuttle's stack traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92 into a direction that allowed aerodynamic forces to tear the orbiter apart.
02:18Both SRBs detached from the now-destroyed ET and continued to fly uncontrollably until the range safety officer destroyed them.
02:28The crew compartment, human remains, and many other fragments from the shuttle were recovered from the ocean floor after a three-month search and recovery operation.
02:39The exact timing of the deaths of the crew is unknown, but several crew members are thought to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft.
02:54The orbiter had no escape system and the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable.
03:05The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the space shuttle program.
03:12President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident.
03:18President Ronald Reagan created the accident.
03:19President Ronald Reagan started the accident.
03:48So
04:18Let's go.
04:48So he did not actually grow up in Yakima, but he spent quite a bit of time here after
05:10his parents moved to a mobile home outside of Natchez.
05:13Francis Richard Dick Scobie held a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering,
05:20graduating from the University of Arizona in 1965.
05:25He was a reciprocating engine mechanic for the United States Air Force and served as
05:30a combat aviator in the Vietnam War.
05:43Actions
05:50Clear
05:52Use
05:55Take
06:00Up
06:03Get So
06:04Selected for NASA Astronaut Corps in January 1978, Scobie completed his training in August
06:191979.
06:20In April 1984, he piloted Challenger mission STS-41C, which successfully deployed one satellite
06:29and repaired another.
06:31At T-plus 68, the Capcom, Richard Covey, informed the crew that they were, quote, go at throttle
06:38up, unquote, and Scobie confirmed the call.
06:42His last recorded words were his response.
06:45Roger, go at throttle up.
06:4747-year-old Francis Dick Scobie graduated in 1957 from Auburn High School, where he learned
06:53in track and football.
06:54Scobie joined the Air Force and became a pilot, serving in Vietnam, where he was awarded the
06:58distinguished Flying Cross.
07:00But his ambition was to fly into space.
07:02He once told reporters, when you can make your avocation your vocation, well, you're just
07:07lucky.
07:08Today, his voice aboard the Challenger was the last heard by mission control.
07:12Challenger, go at throttle up.
07:14Go at throttle up.
07:15In the days prior to today's launch, Scobie met with reporters to discuss, along other things,
07:28the dangers of the flight and whether it was a good idea to put civilians on board, such
07:33as Scobie met with reporters to discuss, because it's not superfluous on space, and it's not
07:40undeniable, it's not, you know, it may look that way.
07:44And we do these flights repetitively, and you get kind of a common place in the student that's
07:50really not there, because each one of them is an individual technological model itself,
07:54and you lose that by watching so many of them.
07:57There are a lot of things that go on during space flight, and it's not easy to do, and
08:01it may look easy from the outside, it's not easy from the inside.
08:04A would-be space traveler had captured the nation's attention.
08:20McAuliffe had been singled out for media coverage.
08:24But the whole crew got the treatment when they arrived at the Cape, two days before scheduled launch.
08:30It's a real pleasure to be at the Cape, to come down here and participate in something that the
08:33Cape does better than anybody in the world, and that's launching space vehicles.
08:36Challenger's pilot, 40-year-old Michael Smith, a father of three.
08:41He loved to fly, and loved being part of the team.
08:45It's good to be down here, and to be flying a vehicle that we know a lot of folks down here
08:50have worked very hard on.
08:51We understand it's ready to go, and we're looking forward to going to fly.
08:55During Michael John Smith's naval career, he flew 28 different types of civilian and military
09:00aircraft, and logged 4,867 hours of flying time.
09:07Smith's voice was the last one heard on the flight deck tape recorder aboard Challenger.
09:13His final remark was,
09:15Uh-oh.
09:16Following the Challenger disaster, examination of the recovered vehicle cockpit revealed that
09:21three of the crew members' personal egress air packs were activated.
09:26Those of Smith, Mission Specialist Judith Resnick, and Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka.
09:33The location of Smith's activation switch on the backside of his seat means that either
09:39Resnick or Onizuka could have activated it for him.
09:44This is the only evidence available from the disaster that shows Onizuka and Resnick were
09:49alive.
09:53Roof camera, you're...
09:54Engine throttling up, three engines now...
09:56Yeah, you should go tight.
09:57Challenger, go and draw up.
09:58Ten degrees, left drift.
10:00I'm going to cut to this.
10:02Looks better.
10:05Something's wrong.
10:05Right now.
10:06Right now.
10:07Right now, right now.
10:07Three, two, three.
10:09Right now, you're on.
10:11Okay.
10:12I'm on the roof camera.
10:13Three, can you get the back?
10:14On three.
10:15Three, you're hot.
10:16Something wrong.
10:17Three, stay hot.
10:18Everybody's flying.
10:20Two wide.
10:21Okay, I'm on the right.
10:22Two go wide.
10:22Okay, we're standing on the left then.
10:25Stand by.
10:28Two.
10:29Two go.
10:29Still on.
10:30Okay.
10:30Still running.
10:32I'm still on two.
10:36Okay, give me five degrees, wing up.
10:38Hold his head.
10:39One is hot.
10:39I'm going to one.
10:40On to one.
10:42Flight controllers here looking very carefully in this situation.
10:45There's something still going.
10:47Obviously, I'm making my function.
10:47It's a piece of ball.
10:51Roof camera, everybody wide as you can go.
10:53We have no downlink.
10:59However, if the cabin had lost pressure, the packs alone would not have sustained the crew during the two-minute descent.
11:06While analyzing the wreckage, investigators discovered that several electrical system switches on Smith's right-hand panel had been moved from their usual launch positions.
11:18These switches were protected with lever locks that required them to be pulled outward against a spring force before they could be moved to a new position.
11:30Later tests established that neither the force of the explosion nor the impact with the ocean could have moved them, indicating that he made the switch changes, presumably in an attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter.
11:50Following the Challenger disaster, he was promoted posthumously by Congress to the rank of captain and has had a chair named in his honor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
12:32At the present time, we are continuing with the...
12:36There really are no answers.
12:38The, uh...
12:39The homily was...
12:40And then you go...
12:42All three are going to look great on any skin tone.
12:45Celebrity status, ensuring them a long and pampered life on Earth.
12:49If John Bellinger's experiment is successful, that age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, will have a new answer.
12:57In space, the egg, of course.
12:59Tom Mintier, CNN, Louisville, Kentucky.
13:02For liftoff, Sunday morning at 9.36 a.m. Eastern Time with teacher Krista Akala aboard.
13:11Weather conditions are improving slightly.
13:13NASA officials now believe they will be able to launch tomorrow
13:16and avoid those embarrassing weather delays that plagued the last flight of the shuttle.
13:20Right now, things look good, and I just hope the weather outside continues to cooperate with us.
13:26Meteorologists are releasing weather balloons regularly, checking the upper atmosphere.
13:30Reins are expected during the night, but the forecast calls for clearing in the morning.
13:35There is a chance of some fog, but it should burn off before the beginning of the window.
13:40The first teacher in space, Krista McAuliffe, and her six crewmates spent most of the day reviewing flight plans.
13:46McAuliffe's parents say the 37-year-old New Hampshire schoolteacher remains calm, but they admitted they were not.
13:52I'm starting to get a little knot in my stomach right now.
13:56I don't know what it's going to be later.
13:58We're getting a little bit of trepidation as we're getting closer and closer.
14:02But as for their daughter, she's just anxious to go.
14:05This will be the first launch from the newly refurbished Pad 39B since a joint U.S.-Russian space probe 10 years ago.
14:13NASA hopes the second launch pad will keep periodic weather and technical delays
14:17from disrupting the space agency's tight and vicious flight schedule.
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