January 28, 1986 : Challenger explodes
At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger
lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on
her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into
space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher
from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among
the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of
shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait
six long days as the Challenger's launch countdown was repeatedly
delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January
28, the shuttle lifted off.
Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including
Christa's family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle exploded in a
forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching
tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.
In the aftermath of the explosion, President Ronald Reagan appointed a
special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to
develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was
headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included
former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager.
The investigation determined that the explosion was caused by the
failure of an "O-ring" seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The
elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold
temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that
resulted in the massive explosion. As a result of the explosion, NASA
did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it
redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.
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