Without its fuel tank and boosters beneath it, however, powerful aerodynamic forces soon pulled the orbiter apart. The pieces—including the crew cabin—reached an altitude of some 65, feet before falling out of the sky into the Atlantic Ocean below.
The five astronauts and two payload specialists that made up the STS L crew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in January of Crew members are left to right, front row astronauts Michael J. Smith, Francis R. Dick Scobee and Ronald E. McNair; and Ellison S. All aboard were killed.
Despite fears that the problems that downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily addressed, space-shuttle flights resumed on July 26, , when Discovery was again put into orbit. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! On the morning of January 28, , a Mexican maid named Carmelita Torres refuses to put up with the indignity she has been made to suffer every morning since she started working across the border in the United States.
American forces are recalled from Mexico after nearly 11 months of fruitless searching for Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who was accused of leading a bloody raid against Columbus, New Mexico. In , following the resignation of Mexican leader Victoriano Huerta, Pancho In , Biko, a medical student, founded an organization for Frye, an American merchant ship. The William P. Frye, a four-masted steel barque built in Bath, Maine, in and A cease-fire goes into effect at 8 a.
With the passage of the cold front on January 27, arctic air dropped into Florida, setting record lows across the state. It was this forecast of very cold temperatures that caused concern among scientists and engineers with the space shuttle program.
The night before the scheduled launch, engineers with Morton-Thiokol, the manufacturer of the shuttle's solid rocket motors, expressed worries as to how the cold would affect the twin solid rockets attached to either side of the shuttle's external fuel tank. These solid rockets were not one piece, but were segments stacked together to form the rocket.
Where the segments came together, rubber O-rings were used to create a tight seal to prevent exhaust gases from leaking at these joints. The solid rockets were rated to be flown at temperatures of 39 degrees Fahrenheit and higher.
Temperatures at the launch pad were expected to drop in the upper teens by the morning of January At 7 that morning, a temperature of 24 degrees was reported at the shuttle's launch pad. Due to the very cold weather, technicians turned on the launch pad fire suppression system at a low rate to prevent freezing during the night. This, in turn, covered the launch pad with ice. That became yet another concern, since ice could break free at launch and damage the shuttle. Especially vulnerable was the Challenger's thermal heat shield that protected the shuttle during reentry.
NASA officials saw the ice build-up on the pad and delayed the launch of Challenger to give the ice time to melt. Challenger's liftoff occurred at that morning.
The temperature at the time of the launch was 36 degrees. Just after the solid rocket motors ignited, a small puff of black smoke was seen near the right solid rocket booster SRB. Hot gases from the rocket had slipped past the O-rings in two of the SRB segments. Aluminum oxides from used solid fuel in the rocket resealed the breach and the flight continued. About 37 seconds after launch, the shuttle passed through strong wind shear. These high winds increased aerodynamic pressure on Challenger.
Rockwell International, an aerospace manufacturing company, began building the shuttle in November and then sent it to Lockheed Martin, another aerospace technology company, for structural testing starting on April 2, According to NASA, computer models at the time were not sophisticated enough to calculate the stresses on the shuttle during different phases of flight.
This custom-designed machine could bring the shuttle through a simulation of all phases of flight, from liftoff to landing. Three hydraulic cylinders, each with 1 million lbs. This would expand the shuttle fleet to two spacecraft, with Columbia being the first.
It took two more years for Rockwell to perform the conversion. Among other things, workers had to strengthen the wings, put in a real crew cabin instead of a simulated one and install heads-up displays for the astronauts working inside. Work was completed on Oct. Challenger was expected to go into space on Jan.
But several technical malfunctions pushed the launch back. In a second test on Jan. The agency then took several months to remove the engines and test them. While engines No. Crewmembers set the satellite free. Astronauts Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson executed the first spacewalk of the shuttle program. In addition to milestones in space technology, Challenger was also host to several cultural firsts in the space shuttle program.
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