Challenger and Columbia Disasters

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.

The earliest human remains were found in Africa, specifically in Ethiopia and Tanzania. Examples include the fossils discovered in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and the Rift Valley region in Ethiopia, dating back millions of years.

Yes! Nikkei Writers Guild is on press right now for a 28 page illustrated book on Ellison Onizuka. Available for purchase after August 30, 2012. For more information, please visit www.jalivinglegacy.org

The value of a Challenger Space shuttle newspaper can vary depending on its condition, rarity, and historical significance. Generally, original newspapers reporting on the Challenger disaster may be valued by collectors and enthusiasts interested in space exploration history. It's best to research recent sales of similar newspapers to get an idea of its market value.

Yes, Christa McAuliffe was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004. The award was in recognition of her dedication and contribution to space exploration through her role as an educator and astronaut aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

The remains of the Columbia crew were located in multiple locations following the 2003 Space Shuttle disaster. Debris from the spacecraft and remains of the crew were scattered across a large area in Texas and parts of Louisiana. Recovery and search teams were able to locate and retrieve the remains of the crew members over the course of several weeks.

It is Possible that the Crew may have survived the Initial Shuttle Explosion, then died from the Impact. I shudder to think of that possiablity. I would rather think of all those Astronauts as Americas Space Heros. No Advancement into the Last Frontier Called Space did not come without a high cost. Remember those who died at Cape Canavarel the Gemini Mission. Let us not forget all the Russian Cosmonauts who died in their endeavours as well. When the US Air Force started finding ways to save Pilot lives by using an Egress System then we saw a dramatic down turn in Pilots lost. I think maybe we should find alterantive ways to save Astronauts lives as well.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most enduring images of the 20th century -- the Challenger accident. One of the mysteries of the tragedy concerns the fate of the astronauts: Did they die instantly? Or were they conscious of their fate? Now, that mystery may be solved, WESH 2 News space specialist Dan Billow reported. NASA now knows that the astronauts lived through the explosion and tried desperately to survive. Story Musgrave, NASA's most experienced astronaut, said positively that the crew survived the entire way down. That knowledge will change the way future spacecrafts are built. After the Challenger broke apart over the Space Coast on Jan. 28, 1986, the crew compartment fell away intact and tumbled for two minutes until it hit the ocean at a speed of 200 mph. Musgrave, who knows as much about spaceflight as anyone alive, said the astronauts were conscious during those two minutes. "Challenger's fast, launch is fast," Musgrave said. "It's 'bang' and then it's a two-minute ride down. And you're conscious. We know that." Musgrave flew on the space shuttle six times, both before and after Challenger. He's a medical doctor, and space rescue and survival were among his specialties in his 30 years wearing the blue jumpsuit. "You died when you hit the water, we know that," he said. "There's nothing controversial about that. No. It's hard evidence. You died when you hit the water." The hard evidence came from the post-accident investigation. A NASA video described the shuttle's breakup with clinical detachment, and showed it was not an explosion. "The initial path of the crew cabin from the vapor cloud carried it across the path of an adjacent contrail. After 10 seconds, the crew cabin was seen again with the front end and top of the cabin visible," said NASA's Greg Katnik. A NASA statement released after the accident said, "The forces to which the crew were exposed during orbiter breakup were probably not sufficient to cause death or serious injury." Some authorities have suggested that a parachute system built into the crew cabin could have saved their lives. At the bottom of the ocean, divers recovered four of the emergency oxygen packs the astronauts had with them. Some oxygen packs were turned on, and investigators say they could not have been turned on by the impact. Someone had to turn them on. Still, NASA has never been willing to make an official conclusion on the fate of the crew. The agency always encouraged the belief that the astronauts blacked out right away. "NASA is unable to determine positively the cause of death of the Challenger astronauts but has established that it is possible, but not certain, that loss of consciousness did occur in the seconds following the orbiter breakup," the NASA statement said. The only voice recording that came back was the shuttle's pilot, Mike Smith, saying "uh-oh" at the moment of breakup. His was one of the turned-on oxygen packs. Looking at the shuttle disappear into a cloud of fire and vapor, most people probably assume no one could have survived it. Musgrave suggests that NASA's astronauts and other insiders know differently. "You could have lost consciousness for a little while at that altitude if it depressurized, but then, no, there's all kinds of evidence that you died when you hit the water," he said. Knowing whether the crew remained conscious after the breakup is important to the survival of future astronauts. The cabin of another shuttle, Columbia, also survived its initial breakup intact, although it did break up later on. Now, a parachute system or other escape method will be built into all future spaceships once the shuttles are retired.

# Francis R Scobee ~ commander # Gregory B Jarvis # Ronald E McNair # Ellison S Onizuka # Judith A Resnik # Michael J Smith # Christa McAuliffe ~ first civilian astronaut (a high school teacher in new hampshire)

After the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA retired its remaining three Space Shuttle orbiters— Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour were built as replacements. Following the Columbia disaster in 2003, the decision was made to retire the remaining Space Shuttle fleet, and they were not replaced with new shuttles.

The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger are buried at various locations. Some are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, while others are buried in private cemeteries according to their families' wishes.