The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1977, the latest event was in 1986
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1986 – LAUNCH FAILURE: STS-51-L (Challenger) launched, LC39B, KSC – 7 person crew – FAILURE DURING ASCENT – loss of crew and orbiter/stack due to failed primary and secondary O-ring seals on SRB (cold temperature related)
Crew – See text below for the crew names from their portrait.
Military and Classified Programs:
NONE
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1977 – LAUNCH (4): Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN-623, ETR
Other:
NONE
The first photo is the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-51-L posing for their official portrait on November 15, 1985. In the back row from left to right: Ellison Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAullife, Greg Jarvis and Judy Resnik. In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ron McNair. May they rest in peace.
Also included are photos of ice on the pad, smoke from the SRB joint at ignition, flame appearing during ascent, and a cross-section drawing of the SRB configuration. All photo and image credits: NASA.
From NASA public sources and Wikipedia:
The [proximate] cause of the disaster was the failure of both the primary and secondary redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle’s right solid rocket booster (SRB). The record-low temperatures of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints. Shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached, and hot pressurized gas from within the SRB leaked through the joint and burned through the aft attachment strut connecting it to the External Tank (ET) and later the tank itself. The collapse of the ET’s internal structures and the rotation of the SRB that followed threw the shuttle stack, traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92, into a direction which allowed aerodynamic forces to tear the orbiter apart. Both SRBs detached from the now-destroyed ET and continued to fly uncontrolled until the range safety officer destroyed them.
The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program. President Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident. The commission criticized NASA’s organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. Test data since 1977 had revealed a potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs’ O-rings, but neither NASA nor SRB manufacturer Morton Thiokol had addressed the issue. NASA managers also disregarded engineers’ warnings about the dangers of launching in cold temperatures and did not report these technical concerns to their superiors.
As a result of the disaster, NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, and arranged for deployment of commercial satellites from expendable launch vehicles rather than from a crewed orbiter. To replace Challenger, the construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavor, was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992. Subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs and their crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry.
