Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 35th Anniversary of S.T.S.-51-L
Thirty-five years ago to the day, 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle
Challenger (OV-099) exploded during launch, killing her crew of seven: Commander
Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Pilot
Michael Smith, Mission Specialist
Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist
Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist
Ronald McNair, Payload Specialist
Gregory Jarvis, & Payload Specialist
Christa McAuliffe. Scobee, Onizuka, Resnik, & McNair had previously flown on the Space Shuttle; Smith, Jarvis, & McAuliffe were on their maiden spaceflights.
The disaster was caused by the failure of an O-ring on one of the
Challenger's two Solid Rocket Boosters. The O-ring contractor had warned N.A.S.A. against launching in the unusually cold temperatures on the morning of 28 January, but N.A.S.A. overruled the contractor, whose senior management then relented, against their own engineers' concerns. The disaster was not only foreseeable, but foreseen. N.A.S.A. violated numerous of its own procedures in going ahead with the doomed launch.
The
Challenger's mission, STS-51-L, which was to deploy a communications satellite & conduct observations of Halley's Comet, was more high profile than most Space Shuttle missions as 'twas the first flight of the Teacher in Space Project, with public schoolteacher Mrs. McAuliffe having been selected as an astronaut specifically for the ambitious educational outreach. She was to teach remotely from space via closed-circuit television. Your humble narrator was among the many schoolchildren around the country watching the launch live on television when the unthinkable happened. The
Challenger disaster made a considerable impression on popular culture & was commemorated with an on-screen tribute at the beginning of
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, released later in 1986. Colonel Onizuka, the first Asian-American astronaut, was the namesake of a shuttlecraft used in several episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation, which debuted in 1987.
The Space Shuttle
Challenger exploded seventy-three seconds after liftoff, killing all seven of her crew, 28 January 1986, thirty-five years ago today.
Bonus! Song o' the Challenger Disaster
ThePhenomenauts, "Heroes" from
For All Mankind (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)
The Wayback Machine Tour of the Challenger Disaster
Wayback Machine '20
Wayback Machine '19
Wayback Machine '18
Wayback Machine '17
Wayback Machine '16
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