Challenger Explosion A NASA Tragedy

CHALLENGER EXPLOSIONA NASA TRAGEDY

By: Rachel Gambacorta

Challenger was NASA's second space shuttle

It had 9 successful launches

Was planned for take off on January 22, 1986

Take off was delayed 6 days due to weather and technical problems

On January 28th Challenger was ready to take off from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida

January 28th was extremely cold Engineers gave warning that certain

components were vulnerable to failure at low temperatures

Particularly referring to the rubber O-rings that sealed the joints of the shuttle's solid rocket booster

• 11:39 a.m. Challenger lifted off

There were 7 crew members on Challenger

The crew consisted of…

Francis R. Scobee - Mission Commander

Michael J. Smith - Pilot

Gregory B. Jarvis - Payload Specialist 1

Christa McAuliffe - Payload Specialist 2

Judith A. Resnik - Mission Specialist 1

Ellison S. Onizuka - Mission Specialist 2

Ronald E. McNair - Mission Specialist 3

73 seconds after take off the shuttle exploded in a forking cloud of smoke and fire

Hundreds witnessed this on the ground along with millions of viewers at home

The spacecraft broke apart and plunged into the ocean

This killed all 7 crew members

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2011/01/28/endo.challenger.anniv.cnn#/video/us/2011/01/28/endo.challenger.anniv.cnn

President Ronald Reagan selected a special commission to figure out what went wrong

“The O-ring seal on Challenger's solid rocket booster, which had become brittle in the cold temperatures, failed. Flames then broke out of the booster and damaged the external fuel tank, causing the spacecraft to disintegrate”

NASA refrained from sending astronauts into space for 2 years

10 years after the explosion, 2 large pieces from the spacecraft washed onto the shore of a Florida beach.

The remaining debris is now stored in a missile silo at Cape Canaveral.

There is now a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in honor of the 7 crew members