January 28, 1986 -- Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

[Popeye]

This Day in Diving History -- January 28, 1986- 28 January 1986. At 11:30 a.m. EST the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off its launch pad at the JFK Space Center. Seventy-Three seconds later the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic resulting in the deaths of its seven crew members including Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project.

This cause of the disaster was an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failing at liftoff. This O-ring failure caused a breach, allowing pressurized hot gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside which led to the separation of the right SRB. After the structural failure of the external tank, aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the rest of the orbiter. The exact timing of the death of the crew is unknown, several crew members are believed to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. However, the shuttle had no escape system and the astronauts did not survive the impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface.

The disaster set off the largest search and salvage operation the Navy had conducted. For nearly seven months Navy Divers and Salvors systematically inspected and mapped almost 500 square miles of the ocean floor in depths ranging from 10 to more than 1200 fsw. Out of 187 confirmed sonar contacts, 167 were recovered. Navy Salvage forces were on scene almost immediately and was headed up by the Supervisor of Salvage CAPT "Black Bart" Bartholomew. Salvage assets included Salvors from both MDSU's, several salvage ships and even the Navy's Research Vessel NR-1 was used to locate some parts via sonar. When the operation was completed, parts from almost every Challenger system, subsystem, and payload had been recovered for analysis. A date of particular note: On 7 March, Divers discovered the crew compartment debris. The salvage of the crew compartment was delayed due to weather/sea state. By 4 April, all astronaut remains and visible crew compartment debris had been recovered. The highly successful salvage of Challenger allowed the cause of the catastrophe to be discovered in order to prevent it from happening again. Many of these discoveries resulted in changes to the Space Shuttle program still in use today.

On the night of the disaster, President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to give his annual State of the Union Address. He initially announced that the address would go on as scheduled, but then postponed it for a week and instead gave a national address on the Challenger disaster from the Oval Office of the White House. During the address President Reagan said the following:

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"

After the accident, NASA's Space Shuttle fleet was grounded for almost three years while the investigation, hearings, and engineering redesigns were taking place. On September 29, 1988 the Space Shuttle Discovery would lift off with a crew of five during NASAs successful "Return to Flight" launch. In 2004, President George W. Bush conferred posthumous Congressional Space Medals of Honor to all 14 astronauts lost in both the Challenger and Columbia accidents.

[8dust]

Definitely one of those remember where you were when you heard moments, not unlike the morning of September 11.

In addition to the first of Ms. McAuliffe, Astronaut/Physicist Ron Mc Nair, who was in his spare time a saxophonist with some major lamb-chop sideburns , was set to record a piece for Jazz/Electronica Composer Jean Michel Jarre’s album Rendez-Vous, from the shuttle in orbit. It would have been the first original piece of music recorded in space. His solo was added posthumously by another musician and included on the album as “Ron’s Piece.” It’s really something, especially if you listen to it late at night with the lights off. This world is full of all kinds of brave and wonderful people. Gives me hope.

Thanks Bernie.

[JES]

Challenger: 25 years later, America's wound still aches