![]() ![]() The flight, and the lost crew members, deserve proper recognition and authentic commemoration. ![]() They are myths, undeserving of popular belief and unworthy of being repeated at every anniversary of the disaster. But spaceflight historians believe that each element of the opening paragraph is factually untrue or at best extremely dubious. That’s how the story of the Challenger is often retold, in oral tradition and broadcast news, in public speeches and in private conversations and all around the Internet. Finally, NASA consoled itself and the nation with the realization that all frontiers are dangerous and to a certain extent, such a disaster should be accepted as inevitable.Īt least, that seems to be how many people remember it, in whole or in part. Meanwhile, a major factor in the disaster was that NASA had been ordered to use a weaker sealant for environmental reasons. And they were equally horrified to learn in the aftermath of the disaster that the faulty design had been chosen by NASA to satisfy powerful politicians who had demanded the mission be launched, even under unsafe conditions. This article was amended on 11 November 2022 to correct a misspelling of the last name of Jeff Bezos and to remove Elon Musk as an example of a civilian who has travelled to space.Twenty-five years ago, millions of television viewers were horrified to witness the live broadcast of the space shuttle Challenger exploding 73 seconds into flight, ending the lives of the seven astronauts on board. Civilians, namely billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, have since traveled to space through by own means. The accident dampened Nasa’s ambition of opening space travel to American civilians, the Smithsonian reported in 2016. The 1986 disaster that killed all seven members onboard was portrayed in the 2020 Netflix documentary Challenger: The Final Flight. The teacher, 37-year-old Christa McAuliffe, was the first civilian to head to space, and had prevailed over a pool of 11,000 applicants to secure the spot. ![]() The ambitious nature of Nasa’s program in that period was illustrated by the people it decided to place onboard Challenger, including a teacher who planned to conduct a class for her students from orbit, which led to it being termed “the teacher flight” in the buildup to launch. ![]() It was also the shuttle that carried the first US woman and the first African American into space, according to. It was the second shuttle to make it to space, and had completed nine journeys between 19 before it exploded during launch. The Challenger is remembered today as the shuttle that altered “Nasa’s space program forever”, and it left a strong legacy. The space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lifting off from Kennedy space center in Florida on 28 January 1986. An investigation later found that there was a major malfunction due to freezing temperatures that compromised the strength of the machinery, specifically the shuttle’s O-ring seals, which are used to keep fluids from leaking and components sealed. “For millions around the globe, myself included, 28 January 1986 still feels like yesterday.”ĭespite some concerns shared by shuttle employees, the agency had given a green light for the takeoff on that day. “While it has been nearly 37 years since seven daring and brave explorers lost their lives aboard Challenger, this tragedy will forever be seared in the collective memory of our country,” the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, said in the statement. In Thursday’s announcement, the space agency said the “artifact” was discovered by a film crew that was in search of aircraft from the second world war off the east coast of Florida.ĭivers found a human-made element that was covered in sand and, given the location was near Florida’s “space coast” where the mission was launched from, they reached out to Nasa. ![]()
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