Remembering the Challenger Jan 28 1986

[Rye Miles #13621]

Edited January 28 by Rye Miles #13621

[Eyesa Horg]

 May they all RIP 

 

I remember being in telephone cable repair school when that happened. We spent the rest of the day watching the TV.

Edited January 28 by Eyesa Horg
Added text

[Pat Riot]

I went home for lunch just to watch the launch on TV. What a shocker. 

 

 

 

Edited January 28 by Pat Riot

[Cypress Sun]

 

I remember it well. I was wiring a 4 story bank in Tampa. We went up to the roof to watch the launch. Beautiful, cold day with crystal clear skies. Most of my crew on the roof that day didn't realize anything was wrong...I did. Watched the boosters spiraling and stared in disbelief at the explosion cloud that was the Challenger for a short while and went in to confirm what I suspected via the radio. A sad day for American space travel.

 

Watched Reagan's speech also.

 

NASA managers killed seven astronauts that day and killed seven more years later in the Columbia vehicle.

 

Space travel, no matter how routine it might seem, is never routine or without risk.

Edited January 28 by Cypress Sun

[Buckshot Bear]

Makes me feel really old. 

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

I was home that day watching the launch on TV. It's something I will never forget!

[Rye Miles #13621]

I was home watching, couldn’t believe what I was seeing!🥲

[Subdeacon Joe]

I was listening to the launch on a radio at work.   Timed it so I could be at my desk writing bills of lading for the last minute of the countdown.  Felt sick to my stomach the rest of the day. 

 

Watched it on the news that evening.  I still can't watch a daylight launch without that horrible scene replaying in my head.

Edited January 29 by Subdeacon Joe

[Sedalia Dave]

I was stationed at NAS Rota Spain.  Word of it spread like wildfire. Watched the replay on the TV in the barracks lounge.  

[watab kid]

our office had the TV on and watched it , ill never forget that moment - i said out loud something just went wrong , couple people said that was just booster separation , but i kinda knew it wasnt right , took a little time but unfortunately i was right , sad day 

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

I was working on the Shuttle Program at the time of the disaster. We were watching it from our office. Couldn't believe what just happened. 

 

NASA was totally at fault as they had been told not to launch when the outside temperature was below freezing. The did it anyway ! I  worked with Nasa on the Apollo, Saturn and Shuttle programs and they let politics have too much influence in their decisions. 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

I was driving to a meeting and had to pull off to say a prayer and wipe my eyes.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

The launch had been delayed previously due to cold temps. When that happened, I remember Dan Rather saying in reference to NASA missing its schedule, “Another black eye for NASA…”

[Cypress Sun]

1 minute ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

The launch had been delayed previously due to cold temps. When that happened, I remember Dan Rather saying in reference to NASA missing its schedule, “Another black eye for NASA…”

 

It was only luck that a preventable accident didn't happen before the Challenger explosion. The "O-rings" had almost burned through on previous cold weather launches. The problem was known by both Morton Thiokol and NASA. The morning of the Challenger launch, Morton Thiokol initially advised against launching but "changed" their recommendation after pressure by NASA managers with a schedule and image to keep.

[J-BAR #18287]

If it were not for Physicist Richard Feynmann, NASA may have succeeded in their coverup.

 

 

[watab kid]

thats a sad statement , all too much of that in our lifetimes 

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

14 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

It was only luck that a preventable accident didn't happen before the Challenger explosion. The "O-rings" had almost burned through on previous cold weather launches. The problem was known by both Morton Thiokol and NASA. The morning of the Challenger launch, Morton Thiokol initially advised against launching but "changed" their recommendation after pressure by NASA managers with a schedule and image to keep.

I have a book that describes all the problems Morton Thiokol had with NASA managers on the Shuttle Program. " Truth, Lies and O Rings" written by Allen J. McDonald, Director of Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor Project it is well written and really points the finger at NASA Managers as being responsible for the Challenger explosion. I was directly involved in the design and manufacture of the Space Shuttle for 10 years. 

[Blackwater 53393]

The Challenger disaster was the second major disaster in the space program. The Apolo fire was the first, preceded by the sinking of Gus Grissom’s Mercury capsule, (luckily, not a total catastrophe).  
 

In nearly every case where something major went wrong, NASA managers had been warned of a potential problem and bulled their way through it.  They were very lucky, more often than not, but when their luck was bad lives were often lost!

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

I most cases the civilian Contractor of program basically knuckles under to NASA because they are afraid of losing the contract and future business from NASA.

I'll leave it there!!!!

[Chili Pepper Kid, SASS #60463]

I was in the Navy going to signalman in Orlando. They let us out of class to go outside to watch it. 

[Trailrider #896]

23 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

It was only luck that a preventable accident didn't happen before the Challenger explosion. The "O-rings" had almost burned through on previous cold weather launches. The problem was known by both Morton Thiokol and NASA. The morning of the Challenger launch, Morton Thiokol initially advised against launching but "changed" their recommendation after pressure by NASA managers with a schedule and image to keep.

I was working on the booster recovery parachute system. They called us in that weekend, and wanted histories on every possible component for which we were responsible. Our cognisience stopped at the forward deck fittings atop the boosters. (The only part of the whole flight that worked was the drogue parachute from the lefthand booster, that pulled the isogrid panel off, as it was supposed to, and lowered it to the water where  it was recovered..) So we normally never looked at the post-flight downstage reports. I looked at the post-flight reports and saw that there were leaks for 120 degrees around the circumference for the boosters on the flights on the previous August and also April! Apparently the leaks were in a direction away from anything critical, but were detected during the refurbishments of the recovered boosters. According to "Truth, Lies and O-rings", NASA manager Larry Malloy initially agreed with the Morton-Thiokol manager, but changed his mind and told Macdonald, "Stop thinking like an engineer and start thinking like a manager!"  If Malloy had been a Russian, you know what probably would have happened to him!  

 

God Bless the souls of the Challenger and Columbia Shuttles, and those of the Apollo 1 crew! 

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

The book told a story that you never hear unless you working in the program. I remember things that went on that I really questioned at the time and I told my program manager that got no where because of internal politics.

Edited January 31 by Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life