Challenger Disaster - 35 Years Ago Today 28 January

[Eric Mc]

Hard to believe that 35 years has passed since this tragedy. Thought I'd post up a reminder.

I know the event has been talked about in various PH forums before but often in the context of documentary or drama TV shows about the accident.

[GliderRider]

One of those events that you remember exactly where you were when you first heard or found out about it.

Until that Challenger, the US had had a good record in spaceflight safety (excluding ground accidents).

[bucksmanuk]

A topic discussed in engineering ethics for engineering degree courses far and wide.
The issue being it was the Morton-Thiokol engineers who designed it warning about the high potential risk, it was the non-technical management who pushed for launch. Maybe it should be explained to those doing an MBA instead of those doing a B.Sc.?
And who can forget Feynman’s laser logic in describing what happens with O-ring rubber in iced water as to where the problem may lie?
https://youtu.be/raMmRKGkGD4
Undergraduate material science - glass transition temperatures of polymer rubber
How could they be so stupid?

[Dr Jekyll]

GliderRider said:

One of those events that you remember exactly where you were when you first heard or found out about it.

Until that Challenger, the US had had a good record in spaceflight safety (excluding ground accidents).

They'd been very lucky with the shuttle up to that point.

[Eric Mc]

Indeed they were. And even with the additional safety features introduced after the Challenger accident, it remained dangerous.

[GliderRider]

The list of non-astronaut spaceflight-related fatalities makes pretty sobering reading.

Starts at about half way down the page: Non astronaut fatalities

[Eric Mc]

That was indeed very sobering.

As I keep saying, using rockets to get you from A to B will never be routine or safe.

[Ayahuasca]

GliderRider said:

One of those events that you remember exactly where you were when you first heard or found out about it.
.

Yep, on stag in a sentry box at Sennybridge Camp in my case.

[anonymous-user]

If you haven't read it, Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane is a pretty gripping warts and all story of the perils, both real and political, of being an astronaut on the Space Shuttle program., highly recommended.




The parts that cover the lead up to the launch, the failure and the recovery/investigation of Challenger are quite moving and well written.

[eharding]

Max_Torque said:

If you haven't read it, Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane is a pretty gripping warts and all story of the perils, both real and political, of being an astronaut on the Space Shuttle program., highly recommended.




The parts that cover the lead up to the launch, the failure and the recovery/investigation of Challenger are quite moving and well written.

Very much so. A great read. The "No plans past MECO" phrase demonstrates how sanguine they were, but also how painfully aware of how much a risk flying in the Shuttle was.

[Eric Mc]

One of the best astronaut biogs, in my opinion - brutally honest and very revealing.