"The future doesn't belong to the faint hearted. It belongs to the brave."

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

Another post brought back the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to me.  I was in third grade, and completely infatuated with space flight and the space shuttle.  I had just finished earning my whittlin' chip (permission to use pocket knives) in Cub Scouts, and whittled a model of the entire space shuttle -- orbiter, fuel tank, and solid rocket boosters.  I made each piece and cut dowels and drilled holes to fit them together into one unit.  I played space launch with that model hundreds of times, each time popping off the boosters and fuel tanks just like the real one did.  It was terrible as far as art goes, but was just an expression of a third-grader's infatuation.  Funny I'm working in military space ops now.

 

I was walking out to recess from the classroom, and had to pass by the library, where the teachers had placed a TV on a cart.  Hearing the familiar countdown, I stopped to watch, mesmerized with the miracle I was once again witnessing.  When it exploded, there was a delay in most peoples' understanding, but I had seen so many launches that I knew, and that moment is forever burned in my mind.

 

Reagan's State of the Union was scheduled for that evening, but he delivered what I consider to be one of the best speeches in American history: 

 

[Cypress Sun]

I was wiring a 4 story bank building in Tampa, Fl. on the day that the Challenger blew up. I'd seen a dozen, or so, shuttles go up and it wasn't a big deal to me to go up on the roof of the building to watch it, but my two electrical helpers had never seen a shuttle launch, nor had the company foreman so we went up on the roof to watch it.

 

It was a nice, cool day and the sky was crystal clear, a great day to watch the launch. Being in Tampa, about 120 (mol) miles from the launch pad, we couldn't see the initial lift off but once it got into the air...it was plainly visible. 

 

We couldn't hear anything, of course, but when the explosion happened and the booster rockets kept going off to the sides of where the shuttle should have been, I knew what had happened immediately. The company foreman was standing there watching the boosters saying "That's really %#@*ing cool, that's really %#@*ing cool." I said, "Artie, it just blew up." All three of them just looked at me in disbelief, all I could say was "Yeah, it blew up." We went inside, back down to the floor we were working on and listened to the radio for the rest of the day. There was very little conversation for the rest of the day.

 

I have to say that when the real reason for the disaster was finally announced, I wasn't surprised. I had heard about the O-ring situation before in previous launches. I wasn't disappointed in NASA, I was pissed. I already had mistrust of them after reading about the causes of the Apollo 1 fire that killed Grissom, Chaffee and White. The Challenger explosion deep seated my mistrust for NASA and the Columbia disaster sealed it. With that said and even though I wouldn't trust NASA for anything, if they offered me a chance to put myself on top of one of those flying bombs...I'd do it...in a heartbeat.

[Trailrider #896]

I was home from work with a touch of the stomach flu. I was listening to the launch on a phone link, when I heard Mission Control said there had been an "anomaly".  Tuned in to TV when they replayed the launch!  I immediately called my boss and let him know, as they didn't have either phone or video comm at that time.  Later video showed something coming down under a parachute, and somebody on the video said, "Oh, maybe that's an astronaut!" not realizing that they had no parachutes.  What they saw was the frustum of the nose of the lefthand booster coming down under the drogue parachute, as it would have during the normal booster recovery.  You see, I was part of the SRB Decelerator Subsystem (parachute recovery for the boosters)(SRB/DSS) contractor, Martin-Marietta.  They called all of us into work over the following weekend, as NASA wanted records on everything going back to the bauxite mines that supplied the ore for the aluminum portions of the subsystem.  Our stuff had nothing to do with the explosion.  In fact, had they wanted to reuse the frustum and the drogue chute, it was in good enough shape.  Of course, they didn't and buried everything in the unused Minuteman silo at the Cape.  The NASA guy down at Huntsville who insisted on overriding the booster engineers at Thiokol, who said not to launch as it had been too cold overnight, should have been given a pistol with one round and told to go do the honorable thing!   Instead, he eventually retired with his "golden parachute"!  If you want to read about that goings on, read "Truth, Lies and O-rings" by Allan J. McDonanld.

 

As far as Columbia was concerned.  Several NASA engineers allegedly emailed their boss to request examination of the orbiter's left wing, which they knew had been hit by a chunk of ice off the external tank.  The Air Force had several resources including spy satellites that could have imaged the wing.  The NASA engineer's boss allegedly declined to make the request!  Had the damage been detected, it is possible that another Shuttle could have been sent up to take the crew off by EVA (spacewalk), although that would have also been quite hazardous, with no guarranty it would have worked. 

 

As far as the Apollo I fire is concerned, Gus Grissom was very critical of the quality of work being done on the command module.  Having met and talked with him, briefly, in the summer of 1961, before his suborbital flight in Liberty Bell 7, I was really shook up when the news of the fire came over the TV.  

 

IMHO, these incidents (I don't call them accidents) were the result of arrogance on the part of the agencies and contractors involved.  No doubt, space is a dangerous place, but properly done, it CAN be done, although, no doubt there will be problems and casualties.  I do believe that, properly done by the commercial side, it will be done more expeditiously!

Ad Astra! (To the Stars!)

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L]

I was watching the launch on TV. 

[Pat Riot]

I worked at Hughes Aircraft at the time of the disaster. That day I came home early for lunch to watch the launch. My boss asked me to tape it. 
I made a sammich, grabbed some chips and a soda and got ready to watch. I put a tape in the VCR and at the start of the countdown I hit record. 
I was a couple of bites into my sandwich when the shuttle exploded. 

I forget about lunch. Forgot about the tape. I went back to work with a sick feeling in my gut. 
Later when I got home my lunch was still on the tray table and my wife was home. She hadn’t heard about the shuttle and was asking me why I left my food out. She understood after I told her. 
A couple of days later my daughter wanted to watch one of her kiddie videos and my wife pulled the tape I recorded out of the VCR. That was when I remembered that I had recorded it. 
I took the tape outside and tossed it in the apartment complex dumpster. Not sure why, but I knew I didn’t really want it after all that and the constant talk of the explosion in the media. 
I regret throwing that tape out now. It was a historic event, but even if I had kept it I probably wouldn’t have ever watched it. 

[Calamity Kris]

I was living in Houston at the time of the Challenger disaster.  I remember watching it on TV with my room mate.  We were both really interested in the space program.  All I remember was staring at the TV in disbelief when it happened.  We were both numb after that.

 

I remember the Columbia disaster more vividly.  I worked for McDonnell Douglas/Boeing in Huntington Beach at that time.  I remember walking into the building where each floor was open and contained hundreds of cubicles.  It was absolutely silent.  There was very little talking and very little noise.  A number of the senior engineers had been called in over the weekend to start the investigative process.  They looked shocked, heartbroken and in complete disbelief.  

[Redleg Reilly, SASS #46372]

My Pershing missile battery fired from Cape Canaveral later that year.  We staged out of the hanger where they attempted to piece the shuttle back together to see what happened.  The place had an eerie feel to it.