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As usual government rulers never admit their screw ups!!! This whole tragedy was preventable! NASA chose to launch Challenger despite warnings from their engineers who said it was too cold and the cold weather would cause the rockets to blow up, just like they did. Of course the NASA press releases below doesn't admit a word of that!
NASA marks 25th anniversary of Challenger by Marcia Dunn - Jan. 28, 2011 08:31 AM Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Twenty-five years ago, seven astronauts died aboard space shuttle Challenger when it exploded shortly after liftoff.
The accident on Jan. 28, 1986 - just 73 seconds into flight - killed the Challenger crew, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. The anniversary comes as NASA is winding down the space shuttle program. The fleet will be retired after three more flights this year to the International Space Station. Speakers at Friday's ceremony included the widow of Challenger's commander, June Scobee Rodgers, who was instrumental in establishing the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. The 48th learning center opens Friday in Louisville, Ky. "The entire world knew how the Challenger crew died," she said. "We wanted the world to know how they lived and for what they were risking their lives." The other members of the Challenger crew were Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis. The ceremony was held at the Space Mirror Memorial, a granite monument bearing the names of all 24 astronauts who have died in the line of duty.
The Challenger disaster's teachable moment By Eric Fiegel, CNN (CNN) -- Twenty-five years ago today, Concord, New Hampshire, was abuzz with excitement as teacher Christa McAuliffe was about to make history. Thousands of educators had applied to be the first teacher in space, but NASA chose McAuliffe, a 10th-grade social studies teacher at Concord High School. Micaela Pond, who was 17 and McAuliffe's neighbor at the time, remembers getting a ride home one day from the teacher turned astronaut. She still recalls giggling when McAuliffe first told her she wanted to fly into space. "How is that possible?" she asked at the time. She remembers thinking, "Women don't go up into space, [and] teachers for sure don't go up into space." McAuliffe was more than just a neighbor to Pond. She also taught Sunday school at her church, and Pond often baby-sat McAuliffe's two children. McAuliffe "made teaching fun, and all the students that had her loved her," she said. On January 28, 1986, the day of the Challenger shuttle launch, Pond remembers the Concord High School auditorium filled with students and media, watching the launch on TV. "We were all wearing party hats and whistles, and we were thrilled for our teacher," Pond said. But the party didn't last long. Challenger exploded 73 seconds into flight. McAuliffe and the six astronauts aboard died. "There wasn't a dry eye in the house, and I think the realization hit us quite quickly, 'this isn't good.' " Pond recalled in a quiet voice. Shortly afterward, Pond knew what she wanted to do with her life: become a teacher. She credits McAuliffe for the inspiration. "I feel very lucky to have known her, and I try very much to inspire my students: Whatever your dream may be, it's possible," Pond explained. "Here's an ordinary person -- she was just like me -- an ordinary person who did an extraordinary thing." McAuliffe's legacy Pond is about to read a book to her students at Francis Scott Elementary in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. "What genre of writing have we been focusing on?" Pond asks her fifth-graders. Nearby, a picture of McAuliffe in her astronaut uniform sits next to her desk. Her students are well aware of why the picture means so much to their teacher. "She knew her pretty well, so she feels that she is kind of part of her life," Kayla says. John, another student, quickly chimes in: "She was going to be the first teacher in space." Pond says she has copied a lot from her neighbor. "I live across the street from my school, I'm a neighborhood teacher, I walk to school just like Christa did," she said. "I try very hard to let my students know I'm not just a 9-to-5 teacher." Pond isn't sure what she would have done with her life if that cold Florida day a quarter of a century ago had ended differently. But one thing she does know is that this country is better because of it. "I don't think we lost as much as we gained, and I feel strongly about that," she said. "Twenty-five years later, we have schools named after her and Challenger centers where kids are getting to do hands-on science, and these are wonderful things that wouldn't have happened if that tragedy didn't occur."
Remembering Challenger Tragedy 25 Years Later (CBS) Friday marks 25 years since the space shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after takeoff. On Jan. 28, 1986, June Scobee watched the shuttle's 25th liftoff first-hand. Her husband, Dick Scobee was the commander. Scobee was among the six astronauts -- and one teacher -- aboard the shuttle. June recalled to CBS News, "We were so excited shouting, jubilant, that finally they were launching." This particular mission was routine in many ways, but more significant in one. Christa McAuliffe, a social studies teacher from New Hampshire, was chosen to become the first teacher in space. Through lessons, she'd bring the nation's students along with her. That morning, school kids around the country were glued to TV sets as the shuttle left Earth. Just 68 seconds into the flight, Scobee uttered the last words anyone would ever hear from the Challenger crew: "Go with throttle up." Bob Sieck, shuttle operations manager at Kennedy Space Center, said, "We knew as soon as we saw the fireball that the explosion that we didn't have a chance of getting the crew back alive." The space shuttle -- America's symbol of technical prowess -- was brought down because cold weather had caused rubber O ring seals in the rocket boosters to weaken and fail. Seven people lost their lives -- as a nation looked on. That evening, President Reagan consoled the country, saying, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'" Today, June Scobee's effort -- The Challenger Space Centers -- stand in remembrance. The centers, at locations across the U.S., teach children the same lessons Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger crew were going to teach back in 1986.
A.M. Top News: 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion arrives Published: Friday, January 28, 2011, 11:50 AM WASHINGTON — A ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center this morning is honoring the seven members of the Challenger crew who were lost 25 years ago today. The planned six-day flight ended when the space shuttle's orbiter exploded 73 seconds after takeoff. June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Cmdr. Dick Scobee, will be one of many speakers honoring her husband and the members of his crew. The ceremony is taking place in front of The Space Mirror Memorial. This memorial lists the names of 24 U.S. astronauts who lost their lives while exploring space. The seven lives were lost in the Challenger explosion: Dick Scobee, commander; Michael J. Smith, pilot; Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist; Judy Resnik, mission specialist; Ron McNair, mission specialist; Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist; and Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist and teacher. This mission was to take the first teacher, Christa McAuliffe, up into space. Her widow, Steven McAuliffe, released a statement saying that his family finds it "comforting and inspirational" that people across the country continue to remember his wife and her Challenger crew members.
McEntee: Ignored before Challenger, Utah engineer heeded after tragedy Tribune Columnist First published: Jan 27 2011 07:50PM The engineers knew. They’d already warned NASA and Utah’s Morton Thiokol that the O-ring seals on the solid rocket boosters that hoisted space shuttles skyward could fail catastrophically with a terrible loss of life. But late on the night before the Challenger launched on Jan. 28, 1986, the engineers were overruled. The next morning, it took about 73 seconds before everything they had predicted came to pass. O-rings failed, the shuttle’s huge liquid fuel tank exploded, and five men and two women plummeted 60,000 feet to the Atlantic Ocean. As everyone involved would learn, the matter was not just a technical problem. It was a failure of leaders and managers under immense pressure to launch on schedule. All that would lead to an epic demonstration of the power of blowing the whistle on the disaster that happened 25 years ago Friday. Allan McDonald, director of Morton Thiokol’s shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB) project near Brigham City, was at Kennedy Space Center for the launch. He and other engineers worried that cold weather would compromise the O-rings. The summer before, he’d briefed NASA bigwigs that the O-rings were the biggest safety issue on the shuttles. He wanted a redesign — a proposal rejected for being too expensive. That January, McDonald, Roger Boisjoly and other engineers argued that any launch at a temperature below 53 degrees would be dangerous. During the early morning hours of Jan. 28, ice coated parts of the launching pad.
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NASA officials, families and former astronauts gathered Friday morning at an outdoor memorial at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to mark the somber anniversary.
