The Challenger Disaster

In January of 1986, I was 11 years old and had dreams of becoming an astronaut. I loved Star Trek and Star Wars, but would have preferred to be on the Enterprise, rather than the Millennium Falcon. I was waiting for my chance to go into space to be able to see the beauty of the Universe without the filter of Earth's atmosphere.
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was ready to launch into orbit with the first civilian, Christa McAuliffe, on board. Her job was to be the first teacher in space and to teach children around the world while orbiting the Earth. Along with McAuliffe were the commander of the mission Dick Scobee, the pilot Michael Smith, Mission Specialists; Ronald McNair, Elison Onizuka, and Judith Resnick, and the other Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis.
It was unusually cold for Florida that day, with temperatures below freezing. The cold weather caused the O-rings in the solid rocket boosters to warp and fail upon throttling the shuttle up. 73 seconds after launch, the Challenger and her crew were lost.
I was in sixth grade and in the middle of my music class at St. Peter's Cathedral in Kansas City, KS. We were singing so loud that we missed the announcement on the PA system. The PE teacher had to let our class know what happened. I will never forget that day.
In the aftermath of the Challenger Disaster, NASA and the US government created the Rogers Commission (named after the chairman, William P. Rogers) to determine what happened. On the commission were former astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, and famous physicist, Richard Feynman. It was determine that engineers thought that the O-rings would fail based on the temperature at launch, but were pressured to let the launch continue. In a demonstration to the commission, Richard Feynman showed how the O-rings would fail if exposed to frigid temperature, and would lose their elasticity to complete the seal on the booster rockets that would prevent liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen from escaping. The seals failed, and caused a massive explosion seen the world over.
29 years later, I still remember everything about that day. However, it never diminished my desire to be an astronaut and go into outer space.

Top Row: Onizuka, McAuliffe, Jarvis, Resnick

Bottom Row; Smith, Scobee, McNair

 

RIP Challenger Crew - You will always be among the stars.