NASA’s race to keep the space program relevant contributed to Challenger shuttle disaster
THRITY years ago today the Challenger space shuttle broke up 73 seconds after launch. It killed all seven on board as the world watched
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Thirty years ago today, after nearly five years of mostly trouble-free missions to space, the unthinkable happened. NASA’s Challenger shuttle exploded less than two minutes after take off. All seven aboard were killed, six of them were career astronauts and one a civilian teacher, Christa McAuliffe.
A successful mission would have been a triumph for NASA’s PR team.
If the public liked what was happening politicians would continue to fund the program as a vote winner. But it was that same drive for good PR that created some of the very pressures that doomed the launch to failure.
In the 1960s the space program had been propelled by the race to reach the moon. The Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 was the most-watched event on television and showed the world what NASA could do. It was also important for the government agency to show its technical efficiency to major contractors, such as communications companies and the US military, who needed objects put into space.
Subsequent moon mission, Apollo 12, drew less attention from the outset but received unwanted publicity when the ship was struck twice by lightning on takeoff although the crew still flew to the moon. The near fatal failure of the Apollo 13 mission had the world on the edge of its seats, but for the wrong reasons. Apollo 14, 15, 16 and 17 garnered less interest. Moon missions were scrapped when the government cut funding to NASA in 1972.
In the ’70s NASA developed a reusable launch vehicle, the shuttle, to become a space workhouse. It envisaged fortnightly launches but numerous delays and problems prevented that becoming a reality.
The prototype shuttle, named Enterprise, was unveiled in 1976, but it wasn’t until 1981 that the first shuttle made it into space.
Initially, shuttle flights generated much interest until the missions started to look routine. In 1983 NASA drew up plans for sending a civilian into space as a public relations exercise, to allow ordinary people to believe anyone could go into space.
In 1984 US president Ronald Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project (TISP). Out of more than 11,000 applicants NASA chose McAuliffe, a social studies teacher from Concord High School in New Hampshire. Her backup was science teacher Barbara Morgan.
McAuliffe seemed a great fit, a highly motivated teacher passionate about American history who would be making history. She trained as a payload specialist but her main role would be to conduct science lessons in space which would be beamed to students across America. Her lessons would be a virtual field trip around the shuttle and a lecture about the benefits of space travel.
The interest generated in the flight meant it was to be one of the most publicised launches in the shuttle program’s history, which put mounting pressure on NASA to keep to its schedule. The previous shuttle launch had been cancelled four times before making it into space and back to Earth.
The Challenger launch had also been delayed for six days because of technical problems. Executives at NASA were getting nervous about another cancellation.
The launch took place on the coldest day ever for a shuttle mission, with temperatures reaching 38F (about 3C). Concerns about an O-ring in such temperatures were raised, but NASA consulted the engineers and due to scheduling pressures the decision was made to go ahead with the launch on January 28, 1986.
It was a fatal miscalculation. A commission of inquiry, which included astronaut Neil Armstrong and Manhattan Project physicist Richard Feynman, identified the O-ring failure as the cause, along with problems in administration, work culture and procedures at NASA.
The shuttle program was shut down for two years to fix design problems and issues within NASA. The TISP program was also shut down, but in 1998 McAuliffe’s backup Barbara Morgan was selected for the astronaut program and in 2007 flew aboard
the Endeavour.
Originally published as NASA’s race to keep the space program relevant contributed to Challenger shuttle disaster