CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE TRAGEDY PROFESSIONAL

The O-ring failed in part because unusually cold temperatures on launch day caused the part to harden, investigators later determined. Challenger was lost because a rubber 'O-ring' seal on the shuttle's right-hand solid rocket booster failed, allowing hot gas to escape and damage the orbiter's external fuel tank, as well as the gear that attached the booster to the tank. That type of thinking played a significant role in the disaster, experts have concluded.

'There was a 'launch fever' at the time, to try to get these missions off on time, and get more missions going,' he said.

That run of success bred a measure of complacency, Chiao said. Directly behind them are Mission Specialist Judy Resnik and Mission Specialist, Ellison Onizuka.īefore Challenger launched on its ill-fated STS-51L mission, the space shuttle program had completed 24 missions in a row, starting with the April 1981 liftoff of the orbiter Columbia. They are (L to R) Mission Specialist, Ronald McNair, Payload Specialist, Gregory Jarvis, Teacher in Space Participant, Christa McAuliffe. The STS-51L Challenger flight crew receives emergency egress training in the slide wire baskets. But you're taking someone who's not a professional, and it happened to be that mission that got lost-it added to the shock' (Read More: ' We Never Should Have Mothballed the Space Shuttle,' by Leroy Chiao).

CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE TRAGEDY PROFESSIONAL

'If you lose military people during a military operation, it's sad and it's tragic, but they're professionals doing a job, and that's kind of the way I look at professional astronauts. 'It was even more shocking because Christa McAuliffe was not a professional astronaut,' Chiao told. 'The whole country and the whole world were in shock when that happened, because that was the first time the United States had actually lost a space vehicle with crew on board,' said former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, who flew three space shuttle missions during his career (in 1994, 19), and also served as commander of the International Space Station from October 2004 through April 2005. 27, 1967-but the Challenger disaster was something different altogether. NASA astronauts had died on the job before-Apollo 1 crewmembers Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee were lost when a fire broke out inside their command module during a launchpad exercise on Jan. 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after blasting off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, killing all seven astronauts on board-including New Hampshire educator Christa McAuliffe, a civilian who had been selected to fly via NASA's 'Teacher in Space' program.

Thirty years ago today, NASA suffered a spaceflight tragedy that stunned the world and changed the agency forever. We are re-publishing it on the 34th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Editor's Note (01/28/20): This story was originally published on January 28, 2016.

Challenger space shuttle tragedy