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Challenger and Columbia Disasters
Challenger and Columbia disasters refer to NASA’s two space shuttle accidents that resulted in the death of all their crew members. Challenger was lost at liftoff in January 1986, while Columbia disintegrated on reentry in February 2003.
743 Questions
Is Kalpana Chawla a business woman?
Astronaut and research scientist Kalpana Chawla was killed on board the space shuttle Colombia during re-entry on 1 February 2003.
Did the shuttle columbia's astronauts survive?
no, all the astronauts on the final mission of columbia died during reentry.
What economic impact did the challenger disaster have?
The Challenger disaster certainly did lead to a harsh economic impact.
An average space shuttle launch costs about $450 million. Because STS-51L (Challenger's final mission) was a failure, the money spent preparing the mission was lost.
As a result of the disaster, in 1987 the United States Congress authorized the construction of a new space shuttle to replace Challenger. Rockwell International was contracted to build the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Although Endeavour was built using structural spares and some spare parts, its construction still cost about $1.7 billion.
The primary objective of STS-51L was to deploy the TDRS-B (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) communication satellite for use by NASA. The satellite cost NASA about a quarter of a billion dollars. TDRS-B was later replaced by TDRS-G on STS-70 in 1995.
Another big impact from the Challenger disaster was the cost of the investigation into the accident, correcting problems that lead to the accident, improving Space Shuttle safety, and replacing lost equipment. In 1986, NASA estimated these as costing $240.5 million in 1986 and $245 million in 1987. However the actual costs were larger.
There are many other NASA projects and economic factors that were impacted by the Challenger disaster. For instance, NASA's part-time astronaut program and the Air Force's Vandenberg AFB launches were canceled. Calculating the total economic impact of the Challenger disaster is probably impossible.
Where is the eyes with no face in you spy super challenger?
Above the blue sunglasses on the left page
Where is the pipe in you spy super challenger?
on page thirteen next to the centerfold, in the center, there is a grouping of 4 yellow wooden arches...the pipe (which is tiny) is lying on one of them!
Some of the improvements made to Constantinople as a result of Justinian's public works projects were new bridges, public baths, parks, roads, and hospitals. The emperor also built many grand churches.
Where is the mouse in you spy super challenger?
A mouse can be seen on page 17 on the badminton racquet.
Where is 113 in i spy extreme challenger?
In "I Spy: Extreme Challenger," the number 113 can be found in the "On the Road" section. Look for it hidden among various items in a busy scene featuring cars and other roadside objects. Pay close attention to the details, as it may blend in with the surroundings.
Where was christa mcauliffe house?
Christa McAuliffe's house was located in Concord, New Hampshire. She lived there with her family prior to her selection as the first teacher to go into space as part of NASA's Challenger mission. The home has since been a point of interest due to her legacy as an educator and astronaut.
She was an astronaut on board the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded soon after take-off from Cape Canaveral on 28th January 1986. All on board were killed, Resnik amongst them- she died in the explosion.
It was the Columbia, the first of the shuttle fleet to be built and which made it's maiden flight in May 1981. The disaster was caused by heat-resistant blocks flying off during re-entry and damaging the wings.
How did the Challenger disaster blow up?
A combination of faulty design of the solid rocket booster segment joints and deliberate progressive relaxation of launch safety procedures by NASA officials and the weather (the temperature that morning was the coldest of any shuttle launch ever).
The design error was to use rubber O-rings to attempt to seal a joint that expands significantly during normal operation, rubber O-rings should only be used where they can be kept constantly in compression. Also at the temperature on the morning of the launch the rubber became hard, losing all elasticity and thus had no ability to expand when the joints flexed.
NASA had documented cases of charred O-rings from hot gasses in the solid rocket boosters escaping past the O-rings and out the joints, yet they ignored this instead of trying to address it and fix the problem.
On the day of the launch of the Challenger, as there was the teacher Christa Mcauliffe was in the crew it was a "prestige flight" and very important and NASA officials deliberately ignored several safety warnings that would have required a launch delay!
Note: Unlike what most people think there was no explosion involved in the Challenger disaster, the vehicle was torn apart by flight stresses that exceeded design limits as the solid rocket booster crushed into the top of the external tank while the main engines gimbaled to their limits to try to keep the vehicle on course in response to uneven thrust from the two solid rocket boosters. The photos that appear to show a "fireball" engulfing the vehicle is just a condensing water vapor cloud (produced by burning of hydrogen and oxygen escaping from the damaged external tank) illuminated by sunlight.
The events of the launch leading to the disaster were:
- main engine ignition and gimbal test
- solid rocket booster ignition
- the joint on one solid rocket booster burned through and the flame damaged the lower mount point for that solid rocket booster, weakening the mount point
- ash and clinker plugged up the burned through joint, temporarily stopping the flame
- liftoff
- under the flight stressed of "main engine throttle up" the ash and clinker plugging the burned through joint failed and a strong flame escaped, causing a reduction in pressure in that solid rocket booster and a corresponding drop in its thrust
- the resulting uneven thrust from the two solid rocket booster caused the vehicle to deviate from the required flight trajectory
- the computer detected this course deviation and attempted to correct for it by gimballing the main engines and solid rocket booster nozzles, however they quickly hit the mechanical gimbal limits and could go no further while the vehicle continued to deviate from the required flight trajectory
- the stresses from the maximum gimbaled engines broke the damaged lower mount point on that solid rocket booster
- the solid rocket booster, now no longer constrained by the lower mount point pivoted around the upper mount point causing it to hit the top of the external tank and breach it
- at this point the vehicle was now doomed with one solid rocket booster at a large off angle orientation and ripping into the external tank, the other solid rocket booster torquing the vehicle in one direction while the main engines were unable to correct this as their gimbals were at mechanical limits
- now hydrogen and oxygen escaping from the damaged tank ignited producing water vapor, which as it condensed to form a cloud which obscured the vehicle from view, sunlight illuminated this cloud produced the false impression of an explosion "fireball"
- the engine thrust torques mentioned above then rapidly broke up the shuttle and external tank
- the crew capsule separated from the broken up shuttle and followed a ballistic free fall trajectory until impact with the water of the Atlantic where the enormous g-forces of impact killed the crew and crushed the crew capsule
