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January 28, 1986: a day that froze America in shock and disbelief. Join us as we examine the Challenger disaster that claimed seven lives and changed space travel forever. From the Teacher in Space Project to the fatal O-ring failure, we explore the disturbing events leading up to the catastrophe, the technical and managerial failures behind it, and its profound impact on NASA and space exploration worldwide.
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00:00On January 28, 1986, as the United States and the rest of the world watched on, glued
00:12to their television sets, for the live broadcast of an unprecedented space shuttle launch,
00:17there was excitement and expectation in the air.
00:20This launch was one that had been delayed multiple times, but now, finally, it was all
00:25systems go, and all eyes on the crisp blue Florida sky.
00:36And yet, all of the good feeling would only ever amount to a desperate, devastating, infamous
00:42tragedy.
00:43The Challenger disaster triggered global shock and mourning.
00:46All seven crew members lost their lives, amidst one of the darkest moments in 20th century
00:51American history.
00:52But how could such a moment come to pass?
00:54What exactly went so terribly wrong to cause such a deadly outcome?
00:59And how did the fate of the Challenger impact space travel from then on?
01:02How did the Challenger disaster truly unfold?
01:06This is WatchMojo.
01:08Today we examine Space Shuttle Challenger's final mission, the disturbing events leading
01:12up to, during and after its catastrophic launch, and the enduring impact of an unthinkable failure.
01:24Challenger was the second space shuttle orbiter after Columbia to fly as part of NASA's wider
01:37space shuttle program, a huge $200 billion, 30-year human spaceflight plan that ultimately
01:43ran from 1981 to 2011.
01:47Challenger itself launched for the first time on April 4th, 1983.
01:51That ran for 10 flights total between then and mission number STS-51L, its fatal final
01:57launch in late January 1986.
02:00In general, the shuttle program represented a new dawn for spaceflight.
02:04Unlike with previous initiatives such as the Apollo program, which famously took humankind
02:09into the moon for the first time, NASA's shuttle system was designed for repeated use.
02:13It was going to be a real routine expressway to space.
02:18And unlike Apollo, the shuttle system was going to be almost entirely reusable.
02:23They had to return this hardware back into space as rapidly as they could.
02:29The crewed vehicles were reusable, and by some estimates it was predicted that any one shuttle
02:34would be able to launch upwards of 100 times over the course of its operational life.
02:39Unfortunately, we know that Challenger managed only a tenth of that projection.
02:43What transpired to be its final mission, however, was planned to be a particularly historic one.
02:48It carried enormous symbolic weight, cultural significance, and it garnered massive political attention.
02:55At its core, STS-51L was to carry out several key tasks.
03:00During the six days in space, the astronauts are going to release a $100 million satellite,
03:05and another one called Halley-Spartan that will study the comet.
03:09Challenger was set to deploy the second satellite in NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System,
03:15which was designed to make it easier for orbiting spacecraft in general to communicate.
03:20It was also planned for Challenger to ferry into space the Spartan Halley payload,
03:25a satellite specifically built to target and monitor Halley's Comet.
03:29And in fact, this link to an internationally known cosmic phenomenon was a main driving force
03:35behind this particular mission being a focal point for a key NASA initiative during the then-presidency of Ronald Reagan,
03:42the Teacher in Space Project.
03:44When that shuttle lifts off, all of America will be reminded of the crucial role that teachers and education play in the life of our nation.
03:53When, in 1984, Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project, the idea was a bold one – send a teacher into space,
04:01so that students across the U.S. could witness the possibilities of space travel through the eyes of someone just like them.
04:07In 1985, from more than 11,000 applicants, Krista McAuliffe, a social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, was chosen.
04:16On July 19, 1985, Vice President Bush makes the big announcement.
04:21The teacher who will be going into space, Krista McAuliffe.
04:25She wasn't an astronaut, a pilot, or an engineer.
04:28She was an educator, and she represented the possibility that space wasn't only for highly trained specialists,
04:34that it could also be for everyday people.
04:37She was 37, a mother of a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old, a wife. She was a perfect figure for publicity.
04:48Alongside McAuliffe, another teacher, Barbara Morgan, was selected as her backup.
04:53McAuliffe was scheduled to teach directly from space.
04:56The plan was for her to deliver two 15-minute classes, broadcast live to millions of students around the country.
05:02For NASA, this was a sign of ambition, but also a thinly veiled major push to improve PR.
05:09That drew a tremendous interest from the public, plus the school systems that were going to show this live on television.
05:15The 1980s had seen a big decline in enthusiasm for space travel compared to previous decades, especially during the Apollo era.
05:23Challenger was meant to reignite the flame, to re-accelerate public interest in US plans for, and spending on, space.
05:31It was an attempt to inspire the next generation of America's children.
05:34And in the year leading up to launch, the media attention was rising and rising.
05:39McAuliffe was right at the heart of it all.
05:41But I've also been an adventurer, and I've always wanted to try something new.
05:45And certainly, as a historian, to have the opportunity to embark on such an adventure, I certainly wouldn't be able to say no to.
05:55Of course, she wasn't alone.
05:56The full crew of STS-51L included Francis R. Dick Scobie, the mission commander, Michael J. Smith, the pilot, Mission Specialist 1, Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist 2 and Flight Engineer Judith A. Resnick, Mission Specialist 3, Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialist 2, Gregory B. Jarvis, an engineer representing Hughes Space and Communications.
06:21Teresa McAuliffe was officially designated as Payload Specialist 1.
06:25At the time, it was one of the most diverse crews that NASA had ever assembled.
06:29Again, this was a group of supremely talented and dedicated people who, it was felt, could supercharge the shuttle program.
06:36Because in truth, by the turn of the year into 1986, the program was increasingly under pressure.
06:42NASA had promised routine, almost airline-like operations for the shuttle.
06:46We had two pads up and running, so you'd have two vehicles out on the pad.
06:50And they were going to launch like three days apart.
06:52But that really never happened.
06:54It was an experimental technology.
06:56Launches were originally expected to happen at a rapid pace, with perhaps dozens per year.
07:02But just five years into the shuttle era, this general ambition had proven, in hindsight, to be overoptimistic.
07:08As a result, NASA's leadership reportedly faced growing demands to prove their shuttles were not just experimental crafts,
07:16but truly were reliable, reusable, around-the-clock vehicles.
07:20Nevertheless, the STS-51L Challenger mission had already faced delays.
07:26What the country's space agency has learned in recent weeks, as well as the rest of us,
07:30is that this is a difficult general time of year to try and launch a space shuttle.
07:34Originally scheduled to launch in July 1985, it had been pushed back multiple times due to a combination of weather and technical issues.
07:42Even in January 1986, it had previously been scheduled for launch on the 22nd, before eventually taking off on the 28th.
07:49That morning, the country was ready. Millions of people, including school children across America, tuned in live to watch.
07:57The Challenger mission was supposed to be a celebration of progress, education, imagination, and exploration.
08:03Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.
08:07We have main engine start. Four. Three. Two. One.
08:13And lift off.
08:15Instead, it turned into a moment that no one would forget, but for terrible, horrible reasons.
08:21Just 73 seconds after leaving the launch pad, there was a huge explosion.
08:25The watching crowds had just witnessed a dream disintegrate.
08:28Challenger's final day did not unfold under stereotypical Florida conditions.
08:34While skies were clear, temperatures were plummeting.
08:38Overnight lows had dipped below freezing.
08:40And something that may have been missed by the eager watching masses was that this launch would be the coldest launch in shuttle history.
08:46This was an epic cold snap across the south. It had never been that cold on that calendar day in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
08:56Ultimately, this was a crucial detail as to how and why the mission ended in disaster.
09:01The cold wasn't just uncomfortable, it was dangerous. Ice had formed on the ground and on the launch tower against which the doomed shuttle was set, raising concerns among engineers.
09:11Broadly, the shuttle program simply wasn't designed with such extreme cold in mind.
09:16And one component to the launch in particular, the O-rings, which are rubber seals inside the solid rocket boosters, were thought to be especially vulnerable.
09:25This rubber gasket is called an O-ring. O-rings are used in a bunch of ways. To seal air inside of scuba tanks, to keep your hose nozzle from spraying everywhere, and to keep beer flowing on tap.
09:39Engineers from Morton Thiokol, a NASA subcontractor, built these giant 13-foot O-rings for the rocket boosters.
09:47The two rocket boosters can be seen flanking the shuttle at launch.
09:51It's these that should have provided the majority of the thrust needed for Challenger to get off the ground and escape Earth's atmosphere.
09:58Working correctly, they should have facilitated a huge amount of burning fuel before detaching from the vehicle, at which stage the main engines take over.
10:06Significantly, though, the rocket boosters were built in multiple parts and then assembled on site in Florida, with the crucial O-rings used to seal the joints.
10:16Each of the boosters was constructed of joined metal tubes, and the field joints were sealed with two rubber gaskets, called O-rings.
10:23The night before Challenger's final launch, engineers at Morton Thiokol, the company that manufactured the boosters, had reportedly voiced strong objections, specifically relating to the O-rings.
10:34There had been multiple prior instances, in testing and previous flights, dating back to the 1970s, to seemingly show evidence of O-ring erosion in cold weather.
10:44One thing engineers saw was the O-rings that sealed the booster joints weren't behaving according to design.
10:50On several flights, especially those at cold temperatures, rocket propellant had blown by the primary O-ring.
10:56The concern in general was that the cold caused the O-rings to stiffen, to lose flexibility, which in turn meant that they couldn't seal as they were supposed to.
11:06In a now infamous teleconference, held between senior figures at NASA and Morton Thiokol on January 27th, mere hours before launch, several Thiokol engineers are said to have warned NASA managers directly that the O-rings could fail in low temperatures.
11:23Their initial recommendation was to postpone the launch again until the weather warmed up.
11:28The recommendation was that we wait until it's 54 degrees before we launch.
11:34But NASA, under enormous pressure to keep schedule, reportedly pushed back.
11:39In the years since, it's alleged that the higher-ups feared the optics of another delay, especially with the Teachers in Space project commanding so much public attention.
11:48After tense debate on that same teleconference call, some key Thiokol representatives reversed their engineers' recommendation and gave the go-ahead.
11:57NASA pressured the folks at Thiokol to change their mind, and it was clear to me that we finally came back and gave them what they wanted to hear.
12:07The stage was set. The tragedy was imminent. By dawn, the launch site was abuzz. The families of the crew members had gathered to watch firsthand at the Kennedy Space Center.
12:18Schools stopped lessons nationwide, as classes gathered together to tune in. For many, it was the first time they'd ever watched a live space launch.
12:27The crew boarded, memorably smiling and waving for the cameras until the very last moment. Outside, the ice on the launch pad remained a concern. Workers tried hurriedly to melt what remained, while the air was still biting cold. The countdown continued nonetheless.
12:44At 11.38 AM Eastern Standard Time, Challenger's main engines roared into life. Air temperature at the time was 36 degrees Fahrenheit, 2 degrees Celsius. The boosters ignited. The shuttle lifted off the pad. The vehicle soared into the sky, and cheers erupted from the watching crowd.
13:03To the untrained eye, it might have all been going as planned. But actually, even during the earliest stages, there were immediate signs that something was wrong.
13:13Nine short, sharp clouds of black-gray smoke spurted out from the right-hand booster within just the first few seconds of the launch sequence. Subsequent investigations found that these clouds were the first visible warning signs that the O-rings had indeed failed.
13:28That the joints inside the boosters had not sealed. That there were leaks in the system. And that, ultimately, the crew was doomed.
13:35And liftoff. Liftoff of the 25th Space Shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower.
13:42Still, for the first minute, everything appeared normal, with the Challenger seemingly accelerating smoothly. All the while, though, pressure was building, and fuel was flooding where it shouldn't have been.
13:53Fifty-eight seconds into the flight, a noticeable and abnormal plume began erupting from the right booster.
14:00Fifty-nine seconds in, the shuttle hit max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.
14:06At sixty-eight seconds, mission control radioed,
14:09Challenger, go with throttle up.
14:11His last recorded words.
14:18At seventy-two seconds, a massive structural failure began. An instantaneous and catastrophic chain reaction. And seventy-three seconds after launch, Challenger fully broke apart in a violent fireball.
14:30To viewers on the ground, and to those watching on TV, the sudden orange and white bloom was difficult to comprehend at first.
14:37Confusion reigned as the newly twisting contrails split, and raced in different and unpredictable directions.
14:43Some may have momentarily clung to a hope that what they were seeing was still all part of the plan. But it wasn't.
14:49And as the realization dawned, as it became clear that something was wrong, a distraught sense of disbelief and horror passed all over the US.
14:59The crowd is quiet. You can hear a pin drop here as they wait to hear from mission control on what the malfunction was.
15:06Stunned silence on the ground, punctuated by the gasps and cries of friends and family members.
15:12In schools all over, teachers scrambled to turn off TVs, unsure what to say to their students.
15:18At mission control, confirmation quickly filtered through.
15:21Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at the situation, said the NASA public affairs officer, Steve Nesbitt, before moments later.
15:30We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded.
15:34This mission, purposely designed to get people excited about space travel again, had just shattered across the sky.
15:41All seven of the crew members had just then lost their lives in the name of science and exploration.
15:47The nation had just witnessed the deadliest accident in American spaceflight history.
15:53In the weeks, months, and years after the Challenger disaster, more and more details emerged.
15:58Disturbingly, the exact fate of Challenger's seven individual astronauts during those final moments remains somewhat unclear.
16:06However, we know that some, or even all, may not have died during the initial explosion.
16:11It just seemed that it happened so suddenly.
16:13Who knows whether or not they had time to rehearse any kind of an emergency procedure at this point.
16:19Later investigations revealed that the crew cabin had survived the initial breakup relatively intact.
16:25The cabin continued upward for nearly 25 seconds, reaching a peak distance above sea level of 65,000 feet, before beginning its deadly descent.
16:34At around 2 minutes and 45 seconds after the mid-air explosion had torn the vehicle apart, the cabin hit the ocean.
16:42At that stage, it was traveling at over 200 miles per hour.
16:46The impact was a force too great for anyone to survive.
16:49But it's been a national day of tragedy, I can guarantee you that.
16:54Evidence suggests, though, that the crew may have remained conscious for at least part of the fall.
16:59Emergency air packs were activated for three of the seven astronauts.
17:03Multiple electrical switches were found to have been toggled on and off.
17:07While the crash into the ocean was responsible for the majority of the final wreckage,
17:11there were signs of a last-ditch struggle to regain control of the cabin by at least some on board.
17:16No word yet on if there are any survivors.
17:20You can see what appears to be a ship off of the Kennedy Space Center.
17:28Just saw a splash in the water.
17:30Don't know if that was one of the solid rocket boosters or part of the shuttle.
17:35These details in particular led to debate around the potential, or lack thereof,
17:40for crew members to escape.
17:42Challenger was not fitted with an escape system.
17:45One had been considered during development of the shuttle, but was ultimately passed on
17:49thanks to a combination of cost, weight, and a seeming lack of necessity,
17:54due to the perceived reliability of the shuttle itself.
17:57The decision not to fit with an escape system became one of many that would be heavily scrutinized afterwards.
18:04NASA's first priority in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, however,
18:08was to recover debris and investigate the cause.
18:11Rescue teams from the US Navy and Air Force were dispatched to locate parts of the shuttle over hundreds of square miles of ocean.
18:18It was a long recovery process, involving surface operations for more than a week, and submarine operations for months thereafter.
18:25In March, the first confirmed evidence of the failed O-ring seal in the right booster were found.
18:31In April, the crew cabin was located, with the remains of all seven crew members inside.
18:36On the evening of the disaster, President Reagan spoke to the nation from the Oval Office.
18:41He had been due to deliver the 1986 State of the Union address on that day at that time, during which he had reportedly originally planned to mention the success of Challenger earlier that morning.
18:53The events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering.
19:00But in light of the tragedy, the State of the Union was postponed.
19:04Reagan instead spoke for four minutes, first to offer condolences and to reflect on America's anguish, and then to praise the courage of the Challenger crew.
19:13His speech sought to unite a grieving nation, while it also served to promise that this wouldn't be the end of American space travel.
19:20That said, the repercussions spread far and wide.
19:24On February 6th, 1986, a week after Challenger's final launch, Reagan set up the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger accident,
19:33which became known as the Rogers Commission, after its Chairman and former Secretary of State, William P. Rogers.
19:40A Presidential Commission, the Rogers Commission, was tasked with investigating how the disaster happened.
19:47The panel was made up of astronauts, engineers, and scientists, including, among others,
19:52Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut, and Richard Feynman, the famed physicist.
20:00The Rogers Commission had a singular task, to determine the cause of the accident and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again.
20:08Those involved conducted an exhaustive investigation, interviewing NASA and contractor personnel, reviewing technical documents, and examining recovered shuttle debris.
20:18The Commission's work was methodical, intense, and politically sensitive.
20:22The technical cause of the disaster was quickly confirmed, a failure of the O-rings in the Wright Solid Rocket Booster.
20:29They would later discover that after the O-rings vaporized, the hot gas of the burning aluminum oxide hit the cold steel and solidified right where the O-rings had burned, creating a fragile ceramic seal, which held right up until the order to throttle up.
20:47It was an expected verdict for many who were involved with the launch, given again that some had raised concerns about precisely this issue on the evening beforehand.
20:56These rubber seals were six meters across, and they should have prevented hot gases escaping between the joints of the booster.
21:03But the cold weather had caused them to harden and lose elasticity.
21:08The effect was memorably demonstrated during a televised hearing by Richard Feynman, who submerged a small sample of the O-ring material in ice water, to show how stiff and unreliable it became.
21:19And I discovered that when you put some pressure on it for a while and then undo it, it doesn't stretch back, it stays the same dimension.
21:27In other words, for a few seconds at least, and more seconds than that, there's no resilience in this particular material when it's at a temperature of 32 degrees.
21:37Ultimately, the O-rings were a vital component, but they became brittle.
21:42And when one in the right booster broke under the pressure of liftoff, it set off the deadly chain of events that followed.
21:49More damningly, the Rogers Commission found that NASA and its contractors had underestimated the risk of launching in low temperatures, and had not adequately addressed those repeated warnings from the engineers.
22:01As it was also determined that NASA had known about the flawed O-ring design since at least 1977.
22:07What happened to Challenger was notably described by the commission as being, quote, an accident rooted in history.
22:14Managers have to be receptive to the concerns of engineers, who must be clear and courageous about reporting them.
22:21The investigators concluded that management decisions had prioritized the agency's ambitious schedule over safety concerns.
22:28In pursuit of increasing the number of space shuttle flights departing Earth, NASA had overlooked important technical issues, the likes of which eventually contributed to the Challenger disaster.
22:39It was found that general communication was lacking between NASA's engineers and the decision-makers at the top.
22:46The failure to stop the Challenger launch has become a case study for the dangers of groupthink, desensitization to risk, and the danger of putting cost-cutting and schedule deadlines over safety.
22:59Feynman in particular highlighted how some of the higher managers were missing even an adequate understanding of the technical aspects to spaceflight.
23:08Meanwhile, NASA's risk management policies were also found to be seriously lacking and dangerously ineffective.
23:15In its final report, the Rogers Commission issued recommendations for NASA under nine chapters, covering everything from criticality review and hazard analysis to landing safety, flight rate, and maintenance safeguards.
23:28The Rogers Commission prompted many changes at NASA, including an increase in the program's budget, adding a third O-ring to the booster joints, and moving some managers, including Malloy, out of the shuttle program.
23:41In the wake of Challenger, NASA was forced to massively redesign its model.
23:46What had for so long stood as a symbol of American pride and ambition was now one steeped in shock and controversy.
23:53Despite all of the intentions of this specific flight, NASA's PR had never been worse.
23:58The space shuttle program was grounded for two years and eight months while investigations continued and changes were made.
24:05A new department, the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, was created.
24:10An escape option was added to the shuttle design, although even it wouldn't have specifically saved the Challenger crew.
24:17The rocket boosters were redesigned to include safety features to prevent an O-ring failure.
24:22The shuttle flew more than 100 successful flights after the redesign.
24:27In August 1986, approval came from President Reagan to build Space Shuttle Endeavour, Challenger's replacement in the fleet.
24:34In September 1988, Space Shuttle Discovery successfully launched for mission number STS-26, heralded by NASA as its return to flight.
24:44It took two years for NASA to launch another shuttle, but once it was away, the program had 15 years of successful missions.
24:52The Teacher in Space program was cancelled in 1990, but reintroduced in 1998 as the Educator Astronaut Project.
24:59Barbara Morgan, Krista McAuliffe's backup, did eventually fly as part of that project on Endeavour for mission number STS-118 in 2007.
25:09But for some, while there were changes made, they never truly went far enough.
25:14Following the Columbia disaster in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board found that, quote,
25:21the causes of the institutional failure responsible for Challenger have not been fixed, end quote,
25:26concluding that similar organizational issues had contributed to Columbia's deadly failed reentry.
25:32The technical cause for Columbia was wholly different to Challenger, but the backdrop, the communication, decision-making, and culture within NASA was again found to be at fault.
25:43Their behavior was to a great deal determined by working in a very rule-oriented organization.
25:50Challenger's destruction was an American tragedy, but one that reverberated all over the world.
25:56In countries with their own space programs, it became a cautionary tale about the dangers of overconfidence and bureaucratic pressure.
26:04For everyone watching on, it showed that human spaceflight, no matter how advanced, carries with it huge inherent risks.
26:12During his speech from the Oval Office on the day of the disaster, President Reagan reflected that, quote,
26:18we've grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun.
26:23At the time, and still today, the terrible fate of the Challenger proves that the complexity of space missions,
26:30and the courage needed from those who undertake them, should always be remembered.
26:34We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning,
26:39as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye, and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.
26:53I will never forget them, and of course.
26:55Believe in me, you will never forget some of the fact that that the
27:07slurps of the Challenger is a great place to find the path for the Challenger's.
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