The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster Explained (and my memories of the day)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- Watch the original by Infographics here - • The Challenger Space S...
Join me in Germany-Czechia-Slovakia-Austria here - www.wetravel.c...
Support VTH on patreon: / vth
My other channels:
Stories of the Great War - / @storiesofthegreatwar
Stories of the Civil War - / @storiesofthecivilwar
Songs of History - / @songsofhistoryvth
VTH Gaming - / thehistoryguy
VTH Extra - / @vthextra
Follow me on instagram - / vloggingthroughhistory
Follow VTH on Facebook - www.facebook.c...
#history #reaction
My father in law had Christa McAuliffe as a teacher in HS. Said she was a great person & he still has a detention slip that she signed.
About The Infographics Show, they were very popular in the heyday of RUclips. However their content is usually not made with the best quality, or information
Just out of morbid curiosity, what years do you consider the "heyday of RUclips?"
I blocked Infographics from showing up on my feed, got tired of the bad information snd narration
I used to watch that channel to death tbh, one of the more nostalgic videos to me personally is audie murphy ❤.
I have moved on though once i found out about the one flaw though so i dont feel much for the channel per se 🤷♂️.
Most of these slop channels are the same
I too, sometimes question what were their sources about those minute details. Were they actual facts related to a topic, or are they just added details to fill-in holes so that their narrative is complete?
There are so many inaccuracies in this episode. Just one example is that it suggest that the shuttle was under manual control during ascent. With the pilot moving the flight stick. Which is absolutely not the case. The whole ascent of the shuttle is computer controlled.
Thats infographics show for you, I bet its intentional to generate engagement
@@IgnoredAdviceProductions If it is intentional that genius and cynical
You're nitpicking. Its a youtube video.
Did you really expect it to have the shuttle computer controlled?
Come on man it's not like this is major network documentary.
What difference would have made if the video had said computer controlled?
If it got the reason for the explosion wrong or the astronaut names that needs to be corrected.
But you're complaint is like saying the booster rocket color was not correct.
@ Arguing for more minsinformation is crazy
The engineers hadn't warned about the o-rings failing because of overuse, the had warned that they could fail if they got too cold...
Allan MacDonald’s (Thiokal engineer) book Truth, Lies, and O-rings is excellent.
He admits that he thought the failure would happen when the boosters lit, causing pad explosion. But the first time he & others saw the film, they knew then exactly what happened.
@@alanholck7995 I think he's the one who testified before the Rogers Commission, saying that if something happened to the launch, he sure wouldn't want to be the one who was made to stand in front of a board of inquiry to explain why they launched it outside of the safety requirements.
And the reason they were at risk was because of a flawed design in the overlapping sections of the solid rocket boosters. This was a known flaw, going back to the 70s, but would take 2 years to correct, and so they officially determined that it was not critical for safety.
@johncassani6780 And that's why top managers at both NASA and Morton Thiokol who failed to heed engineers' warnings and allowed the shuttle to fly like that were either reassigned to less significant spots or just kicked out entirely.
I wasn't alive when it happened, but I'm finding myself deeply emotional watching this video. "The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted; it belongs to the brave." Thank you for covering this event.
I was in high school and I remember it well. I am getting emotional watching. It was horrible.
Can you imagine what speech Trump would deliver in these circumstances? How things changed for the Republican party...
@@stanislavhristov5928
Well at least he could make a speech.
Biden couldn't complete a sentence.
A major part of why I watch your videos is getting your insight on what it was like to experience some of these events firsthand. Being born post 9/11, I missed out on a ton of historical events and many times the nuance is lost when people cover these topics. Hearing your take on how this affected you and the cultural significance of this event is why you are such a great channel.
Also, as a Sooners fan, seeing the Buckeyes win the natty makes me reminisce on the days when baker planted our flag on your turf and sparked the trend in CFB
ahhh yes, the days when the Sooners coach was from right here in my home of Youngstown, Ohio.
@@VloggingThroughHistoryyour hometown produced a HC for my Huskers also
I have been watching Chris for years and years now. I absolutely love history and I have everything to thank for this guy for continuing to fuel my love for history and learning. By far the best and most genuine RUclipsr out there, I seriously cannot believe that this channel is not yet over 1 million subscribers. Thank you for everything you do Chris and please keep up with providing your fans with amazing content!
Quite a poetic and soulful speech to a mourning nation: both adults and children. I’d never heard that before. Regan was incredibly eloquent in this moment.
Learning about this and seeing it all was incredible.
It wasn't NASA engineers that raised concerns about the O-ring seals, it was some engineers from Morton-Thiokol (particularly a man named Roger Beaujolais), the manufacturers/suppliers of the solid rocket boosters. The concern was not due to re-use /wear-and-tear, because [I believe] the O-rings were replaced every time the boosters were refurbished for the next flight.
Rather, it was due to the lack of elasticity in the rubber material the O-rings are made from at lower temperatures, reducing their ability to complete the seal as needed.
Richard Feynman, a legendary scientist and science communicator, who was on the board of enquiry after the disaster, famously demonstrated this brilliantly in a press conference with a sample of the material, and a glass of iced-water.
The engineers did a terrible job at communicating that information as well.
My mom was in college to become a teacher. She was in between classes and decided to head back to her apartment to catch the launch before going to her next class. She saw it live, and when she went to her class afterwards no one believed her.
Hi guys the rocket with the teacher exploded
kind of like the time when my class was in a computer lab doing something (probably installing something), I was checking the news while the computer was doing its thing in the background & there was a huge notice on the web page about a school shooting in progress (to my knowledge the first in Finnish history-), I told my classmates & they were like "very funny", "no, really, check the [website]!"
I am an aerospace engineer that lives in Huntsville, AL. I am fortunate to have met several astronauts here, and it really cannot be overstated how lucky we are as a species that people like astronauts exist. I have never met more compassionate, brave, fearless, intelligent, and committed people. They are the best of us all, and I still hope to join their ranks some day.
I am also fortunate to have worked with one of the Shuttle program managers and gotten a firsthand account of what it was like at NASA in that era. Sadly, as it was mentioned in the video, engineers had been voicing their concerns about the limitations and stresses of the vehicles. The decision to launch in the poor conditions was unfortunately one of internal politics. There was a lot of pressure on NASA to pull these missions off because they required so much money, time, and resources. NASA top brass faced a lot of pressure from Congress and the decision to launch was one that should have been reversed.
Space exploration *is* the future of humanity. It is undeniable fact that space exploration, even with its risks and inherent danger, benefits every single human being on the planet. Regardless of political affiliation or leanings, you should care about and support space exploration.
That's exactly why delays on missions like Artemis 2 are ok and to be expected. Safety first.
Yeah as a taxpayer I would rather a flight get delayed and not cost lives. Please keep these special people safe. Not everyone is cut out to do what they do regardless of what most people think.
25:35 Mach speed increases with altitude as the air becomes thinner because the speed of sound increases with the density of the medium it is travelling through. 1,500mph is around Mach 2 at sea level, but at altitude it will be a lower Mach number.
thinking the same thing, I learned this by playing war thunder and then googling for answers
Kerbal Space Program will teach you rocket science as well
After this disaster, my uncle was one of those put in charge of safety and emergency response during takeoffs. He retired just before the Columbia disaster happened.
In regards to the Mach comment at 25:51 Chris. Good catch that at sea level the speed of sound is 343 m/s and this value is proportional to temperature. However, since temperature varies due to the altitude you are at, the speed of sound will change. This will then give a different Mach number for different altitudes even though the object is traveling at the same speed
I totally agree with what you said about Reagan. I'm not the biggest fan of his, but that was the most appropriate speech and well delivered and what the country needed to hear. I also get emotional hearing that speech, I'm just lucky I was only 5 and didn't see it in school like so many did, but I still remember it oddly enough
38:54 I watched the whole speech. So touching and my eyes started to tear up near the end.
Good explanation at 21:01 Chris! Just a slight tweak though. The reason for throttling down of the main engines is because of something called dynamic pressure which can basically be considered as the force the shuttle feels in flight. The moment of time where dynamic pressure is largest is at this altitude of 10,000 ft and throttling down is meant to help decrease the forces (i.e. the dynamic pressure) on the shuttle.
Was just about to say this. The atmosphere is pushing back against the nose of the shuttle (rocket) and the engines are pushing up essentially crushing the front and back together. This moment is called max q and to avoid the massive stress, the rocket throttles down to lessen the load on the machine. 10,000 feet is still low enough for humans to breathe, and airlines will drop to this altitude if they have depressurization. Aka it’s still pretty thick. Remember finding the solution to the vertex on a negative parabola? That point would be max q. By throttling down. They lower that maximum until the atmospheric pressure would start pulling down from the maximum. From that point, the load from the nose would lessen to 0 as the pressure outside drops to a vacuum.
Remember how the speed of sound was called the “sound barrier”? It’s no coincidence that max q happens right before passing Mach 1
I did not see it live, I was in music class. But I remember my science teacher crying, she had applied to be the teacher and I don’t know how far she got in the process but during it she had met Christa Mcauliffe. She later became the principal of our elementary school. Very nice tribute video.
1986 was a bad year for disasters.
Challenger, Chenobyl, tornadoes and tropical cyclones.
At least you got Aliens, Ferris Bueller, Top Gun and Stand by Me that year
Challenger : A Rush To Launch is an excellent Documentary that's here on RUclips & I can not reccomend it enough!! It had interviews w/Cmdr Scobee's Widow, Former NASA & Astronaut Robert Cabana & the late Allan McDonald. He was the highest ranking official of the Company who made the SRBs & he tried soooo hard to keep that Shuttle on the Pad that day. Sadly, the higher ups refused to listen to him & his Engineers &…😢
May he & the Challenger 7 Crew rest in peace. 😔💐 Take Care!!
Imagine how traumatised kids would have been if big bird ended up on board instead of the teacher.
New Hampshire was and still is so proud of our Teacher In Space. There is a statue of her at the state house in Concord NH. An elementary school is named after her just down the road from Concord High where she taught. The Christa McAuliffe Planetarium on the grounds of the vocational college in Concord. I was at a class at the vocational collegee in Laconia NH when it happened. I was in my 30's and just out of the Army.
It wasn't over-use of the rocket boosters or the orbiter. It was the cold weather and its effect on the seals between the horizontal sections that comprise the outer shell of the booster. It was pressure on NASA to go forward with missions, throwing caution to the wind. Not sure why they show repeated animation of the booster rocket separating, because that hadn't happened yet.
Yea, the creators of the original video didn't seem to care too much about accuracy
Great video, Chris!
I was a freshman in college and in a US history class when another professor came in and told us. Our professor ended class right after so we could go watch coverage.
Other than the "Tear down this wall" speech, the Challenger speech was Reagan's best.
This video is mostly good, but Infographics is wrong about the problem being overuse. It was actually the very cold launch temperatures that caused the metals to contract and the O Ring to fail
If you’re interested though, there’s a fantastic video by Curious Droid on how the Space Shuttle was doomed from the start
And if you’re pursuing videos about aviation history, I strongly recommend Mentor Pilot’s video on Air France Flight 447. So much stuff went wrong in 4 minutes and the plane went from flying safely to crashing into the Atlantic Ocean just like that. Definitely give it a watch
Other than that, nice video!
Netflix’s “Challenger: The Final Flight” is a great look at this very event and the unheeded warnings involved.
The freezing of the O ring, leading to its friability increasing and the risk of a burning fuel leak was communicated to those in charge at NASA. It was ignored.
My mom was an elementary school teacher in Texas in the 80's, and had made it through a round or two to be considered for the Challenger mission. She believed so much in the mission, she had all the students in the grade she taught in her classroom, watching the launch. She still has a hard time talking about it still. The school she taught at was (one of many) renamed Christa McAuliffe Elementaty the following year.
Not to be disrespsectful to Christa McAuliffe but dos school shoting victams Get school named after them?
Christmas week, 1985, my family took a tour of Cape Canaveral on family vacation. I was in 8th grade. I took pictures of Challenger already on the launch pad. Didn't get the film developed until after the disaster and it was so strange to see the pictures of my smiling family, with Challenger in the background.
Recommend reading "Truth Lies and O-rings" an excellent book from the point of view of the Morton Thoikol engineer that was overrulled by company leadership that allowed the shuttle to fly when it was that cold. It was an abnormal jetstream that caused the leak to reopen after it had sealed after liftoff.
Is a turth some part of the Space Shuttle?
I was a senior in high school. I watched the challenger blowing up live on TV . In the summer of 1985, on a family, we went to the Johnson space center. We saw the crew of the challenger training.
An interesting piece of trivia is that Ms McAuliffe's backup, Barbara Morgan, went on to become an (full time) astronaut herself and flew on the Space Shuttle as a mission specialist on STS-118 which lifted off on August 8th 2007 and landed on August 21st 2007. It was her first and only spaceflight. She joined the Astronaut corps in 1998 and retired from NASA 10 years later in 2008.
My mom was in high school when it happened. I don’t remember if she said she was watching it as it happened, but she saw footage throughout the day on tvs in the school. My dad was at work and heard about it once he got off. Both of them remember the event very well, especially my mom, and have recounted those memories to me many times.
I’ve grown more mixed about Reagan as I’ve gotten older, as a lot of people my age have, but that speech made me wish I had some hard cider in the fridge. Definitely makes one tear up.
Christa McAuliffe was my 5th Grade teacher’s cousin. I grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts. Christa went to Framingham State College (now Framingham State University). They have a NASA/Space Shuttle simulation lab, including a briefing room, shuttle, and planetaryat the school in honor of her. It’s a really cool experience for kids. We went there on a few field trips.
My son was in middle school and for some reason he was at home that day. He watched it live on TV and called me at work as soon as it happened. I was really shocked to hear this happened. Space shuttle flights had almost become routine at this time.
I was in 5th grade at the time and I was very much into the space program. I wasn't watching the launch live, only the 6th graders did, but I will never forget the announcement my principal made. "The space shuttle Challenger has exploded this morning and all of the crew were lost." followed by a moment of silence. I had nightmares for weeks that I was on Challenger with the crew as it exploded.
One of my High School teachers (the father of a friend) applied for this opportunity and made it through several rounds of interview. I will never forget the added pain of thinking "crap, that could have been Mr. K!" Such a horrific day.
I was in grad school when this happened. Just a few of us wanted to watch the takeoff, it had become routine, rounded up a tv in a lab and sat down. It was heart wrenching.
I live in North Central Texas, years later I was loading up my car on a Saturday morning and something extremely bright and fast went overhead.
Two shuttle accidents and one I watched on tv and one flew over my head.
for a related (and much better, IMHO) video, I can highly recommend Scott Manleys video on the columbia. ("Reconstructing The Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster - Learning Lessons From The Largest Crash Site")
I am too young to have witnessed this, but my mother still recalls seeing the school broadcast and presidential speech with tears in her eyes. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and reaction, emotions and all! This tragedy, which easily could have been devastating for our nation, made us stronger
One interesting footnote that I don't think was mentioned in the video:
Barbara Morgan (Christa McAuliffe's backup for her ill-fated flight) went to Houston in 1998 to train as an astronaut (mission specialist). She flew into space aboard Endeavour on its STS-118 mission in August 2007. No Teacher In Space Project lessons, and no media fanfare, but a routine space station assembly mission.
Her mission had originally been scheduled for 2004, but it was postponed because of the Columbia disaster.
I don't know if anyone else has already done this, but Cody has a video of his own on the Challenger disaster. It's about what if Big Bird was on the shuttle instead of McAuliffe. That seems silly on the surface (and it is), but it's actually a really well-done video. I cannot recommend it enough.
I was in high school, which means we moved from class to class. Some teachers were playing on their class TV's some weren't. This all occurred when we were changing classes, so didn't find out about it until several minutes later.
Two points i remember from the time:
1. There had been delay after delay leading up to this launch. Folks were losing patience big time and starting to question whether NASA even knew what they were doing, which was a PR nightmare. This may have led to inordinate pressure to launch on time regardless of what popped up.
2. Freezing temperatures are extremely rare on Cape Canaveral. Most of the components and procedures weren't really well-planned for such low temperatures as they were rarely encountered. Engineers didn't really know how the rubber rings would stand up to freezing as they'd never frozen before. Many advised waiting for the westher to warm up, but, see #1 above.
Great video but a tough one to watch. I was alive and watched it live. It is something we need to remember. They were true heroes to us school children at the time and remain heroes to this day.
I was 14 when the Challenger exploded.....we had one of the few TVs in the school that day, and the Vice Principle rushed in to turn to the coverage when it happened. I knew in my heart they were all gone at that moment. And like you, that speech gets me every time
I can easily see how this was a defining moment as a young kid that never leaves your mind. Being a young kid on 9/11 in New York, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I could tell everyone was upset, but at 8 years old it was hard for me to understand why anyone would do something so heinous.
I remember speaking to my parents and understanding that something was wrong, but it wasn't until I was much older that I understood how BIG of a deal it was.
How cool of Regan to address the youth directly! I can understand why this is such an important memory.
I remember this very clearly, although being in Australia it happened overnight so I didn't watch it live. I was 13 and it was the first week, maybe even the first day, of the school year and my mother woke me up that morning to tell me what had happened before I could hear it on the radio (which was always on in our house). I remember just staring at her trying to process what she'd just told me, and the sun coming in through my bedroom window. I also remember watching Reagan's speech. I am definitely no fan of Reagan, but that is one hell of a speech and the tone and delivery were just perfect. That last part is pure poetry.
The Enterprise was the test vehicle that was used to test the landing. There was Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour (the Challenger's replacement), and Atlantis. After the disaster, they considered refurbishing and upgrading the Enterprise to replace the Challenger but they realized it would be more expensive than just building a new ship.
Also, the solid rocket boosters were also refurbished and reused, only the external fuel tank was replaced each time.
I was born shortly after this, but I remember being taught about it in elementary school.
But I do remember the Columbia disaster 17 years later, as I had just moved to North Texas. The explosion was so loud it rattled the house in the morning, and my mom thought I had dropped the weights working out upstairs.
It wasn't until later that we found out that Colombia had caused it.
Bruh you think your kid troped the wait but you finds out later that it was a fucking space vessel blowing up
You said that you thought they were approaching Mach 2 because of the speed they were going and at sea level you would be correct, but Mach number changes with temperature of the fluid. So with decrease in temperature you move at a higher Mach number even if you’re going the same velocity
I was in college in California and had just woken up. Theatre majors sleep late. My roommate came home and asked me if I had heard what happened to the shuttle. I replied that I had not and his response to my question as to what happened was simply, "It blew up.". I was in a minor state of shock until I saw actual news coverage. NASA history was a hobby of mine even then. I had read Tom Wolfe's 'The Right Stuff' just one year earlier. I had read "The Space Shuttle Operator's Manual" in my high school Astronomy class. I held on to a small sense of disbelief until weeks later when the cause was finally revealed. The other standout memory I have is Ronald Reagan's speech that evening. I watched it at school later that day and even my liberal friends, who voted for Mondale in the previous election, said they felt it was a good speech. This was a great reaction Chris. It really took me back. The narrator's (and your) use of present tense is a fantastic story telling device. These are not pleasant memories but gold stars all around for the quality.
i was about 1 and half yrs old. i dont remember this. however, ive watched it when older. i still get a that heart in stomach feeling when watching and hearing about it.
I was living in England at the time and found out when I got home after work. We were all glued to the TV in the dayroom as it was breaking news that had only recently occured. RIP to all.
RIP
Today is my dad‘s birthday. Challenger happened on his 30th birthday. He told me how he and my mom woke up early in the morning to watch it live because we’re in the Pacific time zone. He told me how excited he was to start his birthday by watching the launch. Well, the rest of the day was quite different after that.
I was 8 years old as well. I remember watching it in school. This and Halley's Comet are two events I remember most during elementary school.
You add something to every video you react to and it’s why your reactions are my favorite on RUclips
Punky Brewster did an episode about this where Punky is obsessed with becoming an astronaut and her class watches the space shuttle explode and she is just traumatized and the rest of the episode is about it helping her deal with the tragedy featuring Buzz Aldrin playing himself
For anyone that hasnt seen it, theres a video i found on the cape Canaveral youtube channel called space shuttle challenger accident investigation, photos, and tv analysis. Its an in depth slightly technical recap with frame by frame breakdown. Probably the best breakdown ive ever seen. What a horrible day. I think the saddest thing for me is the clip of the backup teacher, shes on the roof of a building, cheering and happy to see the shuttle launching. And then of course the disaster. She just climbs down off the roof. Cant imagine the combination of emotions at that moment.
I was in 2nd grade when this happened. I remember having lessons about the teacher in space and I remember being gathered in the gymnasium to watch the launch with the rest of the elementary school.
I remember the stunned silence after the explosion. We silently went back tour classrooms. The teacher’s were too upset and stunned to know what to say or do.
A couple years later, in middle school, I remember doing a paper on the investigation and cause of the accident. Learned the term o-ring from an early age.
I was an accountant for a Printed Circuit Board manufacturer in Garland TX when this happened and I can still to this day remember my boss comming out of his office telling us that his wife called him to tell him what happened. All of us in the office saw it replayed on his little 3 inch television screen. It was so sad.
I was a 19 year-old then. I was at work in a warehouse and was listening to the launch on a radio when this horrific disaster occured. I'm sorry that you were so young. It must have been hard to process it at 8. I loved President Reagan.
There is Netflix series about Challenger disaster. They describe the reason very well. Very good show.
The reason for throttling down to 65% during Max-Q (or max dynamic pressure) is because that is the point where the increasing pressure from the increasing speed and the decreasing pressure from the resistance of the dereasing density of the atmosphere, is at it's combined highest. This is to minimize stress on the rocket, not because they don't need the thrust because of losing weight.
The solid rocket boosters also get reused, the orange tank burns up
Saw it live too, so sad and tragic! I was in 7th grade, home, in bed, resting from NOSE surgery, of al things. I had my nose smashed while playing football/keepaway a week earlier. Got face-planted into a ice-covered concrete sidewalk. I remember feeling so sorry for myself, "whoa is me, my life is endless misery and pain"..boy, i was shut up quick.
My elementary school was named after Christa! The challengers! Rest in peace to the entire crew
I'm from Montreal, Canada, and we also watched that launch live. I remember it as it was yesterday even though I was 8.
Endeavor replaced Challenger and Enterprise was used only for atmospheric flight tests.
There is a video with Richard Feynman regarding the inquiry where he demonstrates the O-ring material failure due to cold conditions. It was a very cold morning during the launch. It's bad practice to reuse O-rings on critical components so it was most likely a new one, but the material it was made of just lost its elasticity.
My mom was 14 years old in 1986. She remembers what happened that day very well.
We know for a fact that at least three crew members survived the initial explosion, as they activated their emergency oxygen supplies that had to be activated manually.
There was no sign of sudden depressurization, and we know that they tried to take control of the ship.
There is no doubt they were alive after it all went wrong. That's the most terrifying point of the whole thing.
Enterprise was the first and supposed to be used for spaceflight, but atmospheric testing found important flaws that needed to be fixed. Those flaws were corrected for Columbia, but Enterprise remained a test vehicle only. There was talk about using Enterprise as the replacement for Challenger, but the retrofit to correct its initial flaws were seen as too costly. Instead, Endeavor was constructed as her replacement.
Note that Challenger itself was originally built as a mockup for vibration testing. But NASA ultimately decided that it would be cheaper to convert Challenger to a flightworthy orbiter than Enterprise, so they did.
And that's why its Orbital Vehicle number was out of sequence.
OV-101 = Enterprise
OV-102 = Columbia
OV-099 = Challenger
OV-103 = Discovery
OV-104 = Atlantis
OV-105 = Endeavour
I wasn't quite three years old, but the image of the smoke on the TV stuck with me.
I wasn't alive when this happened. But I grew up hearing a very heart-wrenching story about the Challenger explosion. My dad was a submariner, and his boat was in port as they were doing a crew turnover to prepare the boat to head out on patrol. Because of the historic nature of the launch, they had the TVs on the boat turned on to watch the launch. My dad was in the engine room watching with several other sailors. As the Challenger exploded, my dad heard a gasp, and he turned to see who it came from. A young sailor standing near him had turned ash white and was shaking. My dad asked him if he was okay, and in a very weak trembling voice, the sailor told my dad he had to get off the boat, call his mom and that his uncle was Dick Scobee. My dad said that after they got him off the boat, they didn't see him again.
I was in 2nd grade and our whole school went outside to watch. My elementary school was on about an hour or so away from Kennedy Space Center!
How did you and the kids and the teachers around react and adresed it afterward?
@nikolais163 You could see they were pretty upset! I'll never forget Mrs. Taylor trying to explain what we had just seen. And I guess it stands out more cause along with seeing the shuttle explode, It was the first and only time I seen one of my teachers cry.
I can't remember the tragedy, seeing as I was only 1 when it happened, but I ended up going to Christa McCauliffe Elementary. Because of our school's namesake, we got to learn a lot about the US space program as kids, and that inspired a lifelong love for science in me. I even went to space camp, lol. That was an absolute blast!
Even in her tragic death, McCauliffe helped inspire a whole generation of kids.
The speed of sound changes depending on atmospheric conditions. Hence mach 1.5 about 2/3 through the video. Love the stuff that you do, watch every video pretty much. Keep it up.
18:10 The shuttle cannot abort until the boosters have completely burnt out and have separated unfortunately.
Endeavor (sp?) was actually the replacement for the Challenger. And ironically, Christa McAuliffe's backup, Barbara Morgan, flew on Endeavor around 2007.
I was in 7th grade when this happened. I remember going up to my locker at lunch to get my books for the next class and walking past the 9th grade English teacher's classroom and her sitting at a desk rivited to the TV as her students did work and wondering what was going on. I remember being in class and my math teacher running in asking my Health teacher if she had heard and being told to pray for everyone. Because our class didn't watch the launch and the teachers were being vauge, my classmates and I didn't realize what was going on until we went home. I remember my mom telling me what had happend as she took me to my piano lesson. It seems so surreal that it's been 39 years.
Ronald McNair was supposed to record himself playing the saxophone as a collaboration with French musician Jean-Michel Jarre for Jarre's album Rendez-Vous (1986). It would have been the first piece of music recorded in space. After the disaster, Ron's solo was instead recorded by French artist Pierre Gossez and the track was given the addition title of Ron's Piece. It is track 6 on the album and is called "Dernier Rendez-Vous (Ron's Piece)". It's a concept album like Jarre's previous ones so I recommend listening to all of it.
Yes some of the crew were still conscious. Some of the emergency O2 lines were activated; which can only be done by other astronauts. You can turn yours on yourself, only another astronaut can activate it.
I wasn't even born when this happened, but I do remember Columbia, I had just come out of sauna & turned the TV on & all of a sudden there was a notice on the screen about a special news report coming in a moment, the whole world was talking about the US-led coalition's invasion of Iraq & my first thought was "it started already? I thought the deadline for Saddam to comply was still far off", but it wasn't about Iraq, it was the Columbia disaster.
A reaction to Alternate History Hub's What if Big Bird was on the Shuttle Challenger would be a very valuable reaction.
I was 5 years old and I remember watching it with my mother and sister. Mom was horrified when she realized what was going on. Later that day when Dad came home they explained to us what had happened. I'll never forget it.
I wasn't old enough for Challenger (born a year later, in June of '87), but I do remember exactly where I was when Columbia disintegrated - it was, in a tragic irony, first period Earth science class during my freshman year of high school. In fact, I remember giving a presentation on a different space mission (Apollo-Soyuz) later in the semester.
If you want another video about the Challenger, I highly recommend Alternate History Hubs video both on what if Big Bird had been onboard, and looking into why it happened
As an aerospace engineering senior, this story is taught to us to remind us that if we think something could be a problem, you HAVE to speak up especially when lives are at stake. Also the challengers repeated use had nothing to do with the problem it was all o-ring failure due to temperature. Also once the solid rocket boosters were ignited there was literally nothing that could be done because you can’t turn them off.
I’m around your age and I remember they sent us home from school when this happened. It’s crazy it was nearly 40 years ago. Wow, does time go fast
I was working as a hair stylist at the time of the Challenger disaster. There had been so much excitement in the public about the first civilian in space. All of us were wondering what it must have been like to be chosen, and how soon others might get the chance. It happened on a regular work day for me, I was not able to see it live, for which I was later thankful. But I rushed home to watch the news and hear the details, praying there was some glimmer of hope for the crew. My (then boyfriend) husband came over and we watched President Reagan's speech together, feeling that there was nothing he could say to make us feel any better about what had happened. His address brought tears to my eyes, just as it has done watching it now. It brought pride to my heart, and a reminder that we are all here by the grace of God and may be called to Him any minute. And the best way to honor Him, and our fellow Americans is to meet our futures with bravery and courage.
was a sophomore... watching it in a small classroom... i still remember the silence and squinting into the smoke hoping to see the shuttle fly out... then hoping for a parachute or something... then just not knowing what to say or do.
Rhett and Link's teacher was the one chosen to go in place of big bird.
It is cool to see your insight in to this. I was born after this happened. Thank you, this helped me understand it better.
The Gemini 10 command module is on display at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. It is a an awesome sight to behold!
I just read that the Apollo 13 command module was on display in 2010 there!
I was a high school junior that day and had followed the space shuttle program during its test-flight days in the 1970s. I have official NASA photos of the Enterprise, which was the test model that never went to space.
That all said, despite hating Reagan at the time, this speech has always touched me. I cried a lot that day, but the speech meant something to me and always reminds me of why he was know as the great communicator.
I was in high school when the disaster occurred. We didn’t watch it live but they did make an announcement over the intercom letting us know what happened and excused anyone that wanted to leave. Definitely a day I’ll never forget - the news coverage was heartbreaking.
As to Reagan, even back then I disliked a lot of his policies but couldn’t help but like the man himself. He really earned his title as the Great Communicator, although I’ll always probably remember him more as the Gipper.
I was a freshman in high school also. I didnt seen it live but I remember seeing the coverage of it. IDK if my teacher brought the tv in after or if it was when I got home but it was horrible. I remember they made an announcement though. My husband was at the same school and his teacher was a space nut so his class watched it live.
Interesting thing about those tracking camera mentioned. They were built upon old ww2 anti aircraft guns with the guns replaced with cameras.
I was born a couple months after the Challenger disaster. Thirty years later I was hired at MSFC at a time a when a lot of engineers brought in during the late 80s to get the shuttle flying again were/are getting ready to retire. I've had the chance to talk to several of them about their experiences with both Challenger and Columbia and some of them still get really, personally, emotional over the events.
“Challenger, go at Throttle Up.”
My God… those words haunt me to this day.
In my elementary school a few classrooms watched on TV but mine wasn't one of them. The teacher from across the hall told our class shortly after it happened. It didn't really register until I saw the news coverage later.
Well done Chris. I suggest you look up STS-27. The 2nd mission after the shuttles were returned to flight status. It’s pretty shocking how close we came to losing the Atlantis on that mission.