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Jan. 28th, 2016 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariIn 1980, two NASA astronauts visited my elementary school. I believe it was John Young and Robert Crippen, who flew the first Space Shuttle flight. They talked for a while, then gave out a packet of blue mimeographed sheets, full of kids activities designed to educate and keep you entertained.
This began my love affair with the Space Transportation System. Over the next five years, my love for that ship never waned.
I had cut out posters showing every nook and cranny of the Shuttle. I learned what every call up from Houston meant during liftoff.
One of my uncles, a big wig at Kelly Air Force Base tried to get me into the base to see Columbia on a layover from Edwards Air Force Base. He couldn't, and instead,I had to make do with looking at it from a fence near the airstrip. I ended up getting up close to Enterprise during the 84 World's Fair in New Orleans.
And then Challenger exploded. Right in front of me and about a fourth of the school. Shuttle launches had become mostly routine by then, so a TV was sitting in the cafeteria during lunch for anyone who wanted to see it.
It didn't hit me at first. Space travel was a dangerous thing. It was an accepted risk. Even the news that the Shuttle program had been halted didn't phase me. It took a few days for it to sink in: people died. Seven of them.
I followed the news as best an eleven year old in the pre internet days could. Just snippets of news pieces, digestible facts on evening news. Something about a presidential commission to investigate. The Solid Rocket Booster was to blame. It was too cold to launch, a seal didn't hold. It blow torched a hole in the side of the external tank.
It wasn't until much later, years in fact, that I got a hold of the Rogers Report. And the horrible realization that not only had the Shuttle exploded, but it could have been saved. Morton Thiokol, over the objections of an engineer, had cleared the SRB rockets for launch.
And NASA wss not cleared of blame either. They'd gotten too comfortable with their ship, pushing it to fly more often, and allowing anomalies that apparently didn't cause disaster to continue.
Both of these were address, and the Shuttle flew many many more missions after that.
Until it happened again. But that's a story for later.
The link I'm posting is an excellent breakdown of the Rogers Report on WHY Challenger exploded, including a point by point timeline in excruciating detail of the disaster. It's a good read...especially given the similarities to what happen to Columbia eighteen years later....
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/memorial/51l.html
This began my love affair with the Space Transportation System. Over the next five years, my love for that ship never waned.
I had cut out posters showing every nook and cranny of the Shuttle. I learned what every call up from Houston meant during liftoff.
One of my uncles, a big wig at Kelly Air Force Base tried to get me into the base to see Columbia on a layover from Edwards Air Force Base. He couldn't, and instead,I had to make do with looking at it from a fence near the airstrip. I ended up getting up close to Enterprise during the 84 World's Fair in New Orleans.
And then Challenger exploded. Right in front of me and about a fourth of the school. Shuttle launches had become mostly routine by then, so a TV was sitting in the cafeteria during lunch for anyone who wanted to see it.
It didn't hit me at first. Space travel was a dangerous thing. It was an accepted risk. Even the news that the Shuttle program had been halted didn't phase me. It took a few days for it to sink in: people died. Seven of them.
I followed the news as best an eleven year old in the pre internet days could. Just snippets of news pieces, digestible facts on evening news. Something about a presidential commission to investigate. The Solid Rocket Booster was to blame. It was too cold to launch, a seal didn't hold. It blow torched a hole in the side of the external tank.
It wasn't until much later, years in fact, that I got a hold of the Rogers Report. And the horrible realization that not only had the Shuttle exploded, but it could have been saved. Morton Thiokol, over the objections of an engineer, had cleared the SRB rockets for launch.
And NASA wss not cleared of blame either. They'd gotten too comfortable with their ship, pushing it to fly more often, and allowing anomalies that apparently didn't cause disaster to continue.
Both of these were address, and the Shuttle flew many many more missions after that.
Until it happened again. But that's a story for later.
The link I'm posting is an excellent breakdown of the Rogers Report on WHY Challenger exploded, including a point by point timeline in excruciating detail of the disaster. It's a good read...especially given the similarities to what happen to Columbia eighteen years later....
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/memorial/51l.html
