Challenger and Columbia Disasters

Firstly, the space shuttle does not not go to the moon. It remains in low-earth orbit. Also, it does not land in the ocean but makes an unpowered landing on a runway. The capsule of Challenger did sink after it fell into the ocean during its launch accident in 1986. The solid rocket boosters that fall from the shuttle during launch do float and are recovered.

The Apollo command modules that did travel to the moon during the Apollo moon missions landed in the ocean and did float. Also, frogmen attached a flotation collar when they reached the capsule.

The Space Shuttle never goes in the ocean. It lands at Kennedy Space Center in Florida or Edwards Air Force Base in California<br>The Space Shuttle has never been to the Moon.

that would be the Columbia it was the oldest in the fleet with a total of 28 missions under its belt

The Columbia space shuttle was one of NASA's orbiter vehicles, part of the Space Shuttle program. It first launched in 1981 and tragically disintegrated upon re-entry in 2003, resulting in the loss of all seven crew members.

The breakup of the space shuttle Challenger was the first space shuttle disaster. It was caused by the failure of two O- rings in one of the solid rocket boosters (SRB's) to properly seal. There had been problems with the seal on other missions, but it is thought that the decision to launch in near-freezing temperatures contributed to the failure, making the seal rigid and unable to seal properly. This led to a catastrophic chain of events. Hot gases escaped from the SRB, followed by a flame, damaging the clamp securing the SRB, and burning through the external fuel tank causing the tank to disintegrate. The forces created caused the orbiter to disintegrate (it did not explode) before the debris crashed into the ocean.

The Challenger Space Shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members on board. The Columbia Space Shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, killing all seven crew members on board.

The space shuttle allowed for the deployment and servicing of satellites, construction and maintenance of the International Space Station, and the transportation of astronauts and supplies to space. It also facilitated scientific research in microgravity and helped advance our understanding of space travel and technology.

There was no US space shuttle by that name.

Possibly you are thinking of the Apollo 13 flight, which did not crash, but experienced an explosion on board. The command module was called Odyssey, and successfully returned to earth with the crew.

The name of the first space shuttle that was run through free flight simulation was Enterprise, but the first space shuttle to actually reach orbit was Columbia in 1981.

Most indications point to death by the violent impact caused by the crash of the crew compartment into the ocean at around 200g's. More than likely, as well as mercifully, they were unconscious at the time due to the disconnection of their life-support equipment. However it occurred, it was a total tragedy with all seven brave astronauts killed.

Challenger (January 28, 1986). Columbia (February 1, 2003) broke up in the atmosphere because of a hole in the wing made by a piece of foam at launch.

Challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off the coat of Florida, not far downrange from the Kennedy Space Center where it had launched only 73 seconds earlier

Astronaut Ellison Onizuka participated in scouting and reached the level of Eagle Scout. However STS-51L had another connection to scouting as well. One of the items flown in STS-51L's flight kit was an American Flag sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado. Their scoutmaster, William Tolbert (A major in the USAF space command), ordered the flag and arranged for it to be flown over the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., then flown on the space shuttle during STS-51L. However STS-51L ended in disaster as the space shuttle Challenger was destroyed. Later divers found the the flag, still completely intact and sealed in a plastic bag. The flag was returned to Boy Scout troop 514 in a special ceremony, presented by astronaut Guy Bluford (Also a past Eagle scout).

The space shuttle Columbia broke apart upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, leading to its crash in eastern Texas and parts of Louisiana. All seven crew members aboard lost their lives.

The space shuttle Challenger lifted off on January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 a.m. EST. Seventy three seconds into the mission, Challenger exploded, killing the entire crew of seven, including Christa McAuliffe, who was chosen from 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space.. Click on the link below for the entire story.

Typically it is Florida, at Cape Canaveral

Typically it is Florida, at Cape Canaveral

Typically it is Florida, at Cape Canaveral

Typically it is Florida, at Cape Canaveral

Typically it is Florida, at Cape Canaveral

Typically it is Florida, at Cape Canaveral

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe, but she is better known as Christa McAuliffe. She was a teacher from Concord, New Hampshire who was selected out of about 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space. She, along with 6 other brave souls, died 73 seconds after takeoff.

1. Obtainment of nutrients: Land plants had to develop root systems to extract essential nutrients from soil, whereas algae absorbed nutrients directly from water.
2. Desiccation: Land plants needed to evolve specialized structures like cuticles and stomata to prevent dehydration, which algae did not face in their aquatic environment.
3. Reproduction: Plants had to develop strategies for pollination and dispersal of seeds in terrestrial environments, unlike algae, which released spores directly into the water.
4. Gravity: Land plants had to support their structures against gravity using mechanisms like lignin-strengthened cell walls and vascular tissues, a challenge not faced by algae that float in water.

One of the biggest challenges for survival of the first land plants was establishing a way to transport water and nutrients in the absence of a constant aquatic environment. This led to the evolution of vascular tissues such as xylem and phloem.

It is certainly possible for the universe to be so dense that gravity would be strong enough to make it re-collapse. In this case we would observe blue shifts instead of red shifts as all the galaxies ran back together. They would collide, and the universe would become progressively hotter and denser. In the last minutes, even super-dense objects like white dwarfs and neutron stars would begin to evaporate. Ultimately, the fate of such a universe would seem inevitably to lead to a Big Crunch where all matter is jammed together in one cosmic black hole. But who really knows? There has been speculation that after such a Big Crunch there could be a new Big Bang, so that the universe might regenerate in cycles like the legendary Pheonix. I find that a nice thought, but a big crunch does not loom soon in our future, if it'll ever happen at all: it won't if our current measurement and understanding of the acceleration is correct. This universe will expand forever, becoming ever sparser than it already is.

The primary cause of the Challenger disaster was the failure of O-rings in the solid rocket boosters ( SRB'S) to properly seal due to the extremely cold temperatures experienced on the launch morning.

This problem had not gone unforeseen. The already-delayed mission was scheduled to launch when unusually low temperatures and cool clear weather were forecast - 23 degrees F overnight preceding the launch. This especially concerned the engineers at Thiokol, the company responsible for the manufacture of the SRB's. The seals had only been tested down to a minimum temperature of 53F, with a projected baseline of 40F. Beyond that, no guarantees could be made. They calculated the temperature at the expected time of launch would compromise the seal's ability to remain elastic enough to seal in the gases and heat. Some NASA officials placed pressure on Thiokol to approve the launch, and although the engineers refused to give in, they were over-ridden by the Thiokol management and launch was approved by them. In a series of mis-communications where those responsible for the final decision to launch did not hear about the concerns expressed, NASA ultimately approved the delayed launch.

On the launch morning, the ice team worked through the night to clear ice from the orbiter and surrounding structures. Some icicles were 16 inches long, and a single ice sheet extended down several levels of the gantry. The ice-team gave the green light to launch officials when the ice was seen to be melting, as launch was delayed for an hour to allow the temperature to rise slightly.

A factor which compounded the problems with the temperature around the booster was the super-cooled air which flowed down from the External Fuel Tank. This is a normal occurance, but on this particular morning, the wind direction blew the air in a way which caused it to settle around the aft-joint in which the O-rings are situated. This compounded the already low temperatures of the structure.The ice team are said to have measured the temperature in the region of the O-ring at 8 F, but this was never passed on to higher level NASA officials.

At launch, the Thiokol engineer's worst fears were realized as the rings failed to move enough to completely seal, as evidenced by the black smoke puffs visible as soon as 0.678 seconds after ignition. The rings vaporized due to the leaking hot gases, and subsequent flame that emerged from the breach. This led to a chain of events until the external fuel tank ruptured and disintegrated, and the orbiter itself was pulled apart by aerodynamic forces.

A final influence of the weather on the disaster was the wind shear experienced seconds before the final break-up of the shuttle stack. This wind shear was the worst ever experienced during a shuttle launch and occurred at the point of maximum stress on the vehicle (max Q). When the O-rings had failed to seal, a temporary seal had been formed by melted aluminum oxide leaking into the joint. This seal shattered in the wind shear, and many feel that had the wind force not been so violent, it may have been sufficient to last until booster separation (although the shuttle would probably not have reached orbital height).

While space shuttle Columbia was lifting off, a piece of Styrofoam the size of a briefcase fell on its wing. It made a hole in it. While reentering Earth's atmosphere, heat got inside the wing. It started making engines offline at mission control and the space shuttle disintegrated over Texas. Everyone died on Columbia. (I don't know how they would survive anyway)

That was the Hindenberg, which crashed in Lakehurst, NJ.

Though people believed the hydrogen was the cause of the crash, a lightning strike is said to have ignited the paraffin wax coating the lining of the balloon part of the ship allowing the gas to escape and a loss of buoyancy. Hydrogen leaving through the tear in the fabric caught fire, but that part of the fire didn't really cause any additional harm. It did, however provide light making visible the crash and thus making it look more horrifying than it would look in darkness.

Christa McAuliffe was a high school social studies teacher and taught primarily history and civics. She was chosen to be the first private citizen in space aboard the Challenger shuttle in 1986, tragically resulting in the Challenger disaster.