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N0KFQ > TODAY 29.01.12 02:14l 67 Lines 3147 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 16984_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 28
Path: IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IW2OHX<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<VE3UIL<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120128/2349Z 16984@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.47
Jan 28, 1986:
Challenger explodes
At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle
Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa
McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S.
civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high
school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a
competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew
of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but
then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as
the Challenger's launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because
of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the
shuttle lifted off.
Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including
Christa's family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle exploded in
a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the
wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no
survivors.
In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
unveiled the world's first reusable manned spacecraft, the
Enterprise. Five years later, space flights of the shuttle began
when Columbia traveled into space on a 54-hour mission. Launched
by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the
aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the
mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed
and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a
glider. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and
carried out various scientific experiments. The Challenger
disaster was the first major shuttle accident.
In the aftermath of the explosion, President Ronald Reagan
appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with
Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. The
presidential commission was headed by former secretary of state
William Rogers, and included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and
former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The investigation determined that
the explosion was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in
one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not
respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch
time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive
explosion. As a result of the explosion, NASA did not send
astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a
number of features of the space shuttle.
In September 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the
successful launching of the Discovery. Since then, the space
shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, such as the
repair and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the
construction of the International Space Station.
On February 1, 2003, a second space-shuttle disaster rocked the
United States when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry of the
Earth's atmosphere. All aboard were killed. Despite fears that
the problems that downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily
addressed, space-shuttle flights resumed on July 26, 2005, when
Discovery was again put into orbit.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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