In the third minute after liftoff, as people observe the space shuttle Challenger exploding, their faces were filled with horror, shock, and sadness. Through ground tracking cameras this was seen as a brief flame licking from a concealed spot on the right side of the vehicle a few seconds before everything disappeared in the fireball. [31], President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to give the 1986 State of the Union Address on January28,1986, the evening of the Challenger disaster. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [3]:II-222 The SRBs separated from the orbiter once they had expended their fuel and fell into the Atlantic Ocean under a parachute. The Development and Production Panel, chaired by Sutter, investigated the hardware contractors and how they interacted with NASA. At the time of separation, the maximum acceleration is estimated to have been between 12 and 20 times that of gravity (g). Mission Control told Scobee, Challenger, go with throttle up, and seconds later the vehicle disappeared in an explosion just 73 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of 14,000 metres (46,000 feet). They are warnings that something is wrong. [81] [30] Scobee and Smith were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. How much is a biblical shekel of silver worth in us dollars? Other members of the commission included astronauts Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, test pilot Chuck Yeager, and physicist Richard Feynman. In March 1986, the remains of the astronauts were found in the debris of the crew cabin. This article was most recently revised and updated by, 7 Accidents and Disasters in Spaceflight History, 12 Questions About the History of Space Exploration Answered, https://www.britannica.com/event/Challenger-disaster, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum - Remembering the Challenger Seven, Bill of Rights Institute - The Space Shuttle Program and the Challenger Disaster, NASA - The Crew of the Challenger Shuttle Mission in 1986, Space.com - Space shuttle Challenger and the disaster that changed NASA forever, GlobalSecurity.org - The Challenger Accident, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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