On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
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I wasn't working at the time and was home watching the launch on TV.
Really heartbreaking to watch. A friend happened to have a VHS player with perfect freeze frame so we analysed the video of the launch, frame by frame.
We weren't too far off the eventual root cause failure with are amateur "back of the napkin" analysis
@simonzerafa Indeed – it was a very difficult day.
Of course made worse later when the Rogers Commission found that senior management & engineering hubris played a significant role, ignoring known SRB flaws & launching on a day well outside the rated conditions. The political pressure to up the launch cadence was also in the background.
And having worked 15 years for a space agency, I certainly recognise some of the non-technical sociological issues that can lead to disaster.
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean I was on a site visit to GPT Beeston (Nottingham), helping them use our software.
Someone called out "The shuttles just exploded!" and a mad scramble began to get more details. Of course, there were no 24-hour news channels in those days, nor any TVs to pick up Ceefax, but eventually someone managed to connect up to Prestel for a report.
Not a lot of work got done after that...
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@markmccaughrean I was on a site visit to GPT Beeston (Nottingham), helping them use our software.
Someone called out "The shuttles just exploded!" and a mad scramble began to get more details. Of course, there were no 24-hour news channels in those days, nor any TVs to pick up Ceefax, but eventually someone managed to connect up to Prestel for a report.
Not a lot of work got done after that...
@birchbirch It was a very difficult day.
I had just finished writing my regular piece about my fellow students for the ROE newsletter. I added a “in memoriam” sentence about the Challenger crew at the top, but was enough shock that I didn’t reread what came after in my original article before sending it in.
When it was printed, I was embarrassed by the jokey tone of the main article – it was completely inappropriate coming after that sombre opening
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@birchbirch It was a very difficult day.
I had just finished writing my regular piece about my fellow students for the ROE newsletter. I added a “in memoriam” sentence about the Challenger crew at the top, but was enough shock that I didn’t reread what came after in my original article before sending it in.
When it was printed, I was embarrassed by the jokey tone of the main article – it was completely inappropriate coming after that sombre opening
@markmccaughrean Ouch!
Although, to be fair, this was a 'special circumstance'... Didn't the newsletter have an editor to catch and question the tone?
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
I lived in Tampa at the time and as soon as it happened I went outside and could see the split smoke plumes from the explosion. Just heartbreaking.
But I also had the pleasure of being invited to a landing of a previous flight, way "inside the ropes", and I'll never forget the sound of the shuttle coming in. No engines, so I expected it to be silent. Nope - talk about aerodynamically dirty!
Amazing craft and program. Too bad they couldn't keep the political pressure from interfering.
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean I was 11 when it happened and we were on a school trip when it happened. That morning our teacher told us the the Space Shuttle exploded and I could not believe it until he showed me the newspaper with the swan cloud on the title page.
I was one of the kids with NASA posters on the wall, big space nerd, but I knew hardly anything about how dangerous flying to space was.
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I lived in Tampa at the time and as soon as it happened I went outside and could see the split smoke plumes from the explosion. Just heartbreaking.
But I also had the pleasure of being invited to a landing of a previous flight, way "inside the ropes", and I'll never forget the sound of the shuttle coming in. No engines, so I expected it to be silent. Nope - talk about aerodynamically dirty!
Amazing craft and program. Too bad they couldn't keep the political pressure from interfering.
@friz As flawed as the shuttle was, it was hugely important machine & in many ways, still unrivalled, despite the endless bleating of the billionaire space bros.
Unfortunately, I never saw a launch, but I was lucky enough to visit KSC in 2010 as part of an ESA-NASA bilateral & take a tour through the OPF.
Discovery was there & we got very up-close & personal, walking underneath it. I may or may not have (gently) touched the thermal tiles & undercarriage
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean
I was in my middle school homeroom class and someone wheeled in at television to show us the news. -
@markmccaughrean I was 11 when it happened and we were on a school trip when it happened. That morning our teacher told us the the Space Shuttle exploded and I could not believe it until he showed me the newspaper with the swan cloud on the title page.
I was one of the kids with NASA posters on the wall, big space nerd, but I knew hardly anything about how dangerous flying to space was.
@Snoeksen Indeed. And arguably, it's not much safer today – while computing power may have improved greatly in the past 40 years, certain aspects of going to space are remain very much rooted in "analogue physics", & also there's no guarantee at all that engineering, management, & oversight systems improve with time.
We will found out when the first group of tourists dies on one of the billionaire tech bros machines – these are not famously people that listen to dissenting employees.
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean Not too long ago I visited (for the first time ever!) a theater play. It was a one-woman show about Judy Resniks life, called You're Too Cute to Be an Astronaut. A quite gripping performance, exciting, funny, sometimes intermixed with personal anecdotes from the actress who is also called Judy. I did in fact not know that she was one of the Challenger victims, but during the play there was some foreshadowing.
The clock stopped at 73 seconds and the entire room was gasping for breath in deadly silence.
I was not alive when the accident happened, but I feel I experienced some of the despair through this play. -
On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean I was in a university class and a friend came in and asked, "Did you hear Challenger blew up?"
I thought it was the lead to a joke in poor taste, and I still wish that had been all it was.
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@markmccaughrean
I was in my middle school homeroom class and someone wheeled in at television to show us the news.@JeremyMallin That must have been quite shocking.
Indeed, if I recall correctly, many school children were watching the launch live, as Christa McAuliffe was on-board, to be the first teacher in space.
Very traumatic, I expect.
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean The #BBC did a podcast season about the space shuttle, leading up to the Challenger tragedy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2/episodes/downloads
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@markmccaughrean I was in a university class and a friend came in and asked, "Did you hear Challenger blew up?"
I thought it was the lead to a joke in poor taste, and I still wish that had been all it was.
@jrm And as if to prove that insensitive snark wasn't invented when the internet came along, there were many very poor state jokes made after the explosion, things I remember hearing but won't repeat here.
Humans really can be the worst of species at times ...
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean I can't bear to watch it. The Mother watching from the stands.
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@markmccaughrean Ouch!
Although, to be fair, this was a 'special circumstance'... Didn't the newsletter have an editor to catch and question the tone?
@birchbirch Apparently not – when the newsletter was printed & circulated on site, some people complained to me about the apparently callous transition. But it was entirely unintentional & the consequence of numbness I felt on that day.
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
@markmccaughrean I was in sixth grade (10 years old or so) during what would normally be English class. We were watching it live on the television as a teacher was going into space.
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@markmccaughrean I was in sixth grade (10 years old or so) during what would normally be English class. We were watching it live on the television as a teacher was going into space.
@raederle I can't begin to imagine how hard that must've been to witness at that age & how difficult it must've been for the teachers in all those schools faced with a class of pupils after seeing such an event.
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
That was a baaaaad day. We had to immediately produce a dedication-slide to put up before the move "The Dream is Alive" (IMAX, 1985).
The one and only time the boss didn't complain about the rush fees for 35mm slide production.
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On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.
I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.
That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.
I still remember their names:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.
Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew
Thanks for the reminder, Mark, and the tribute to the astronauts. A horrible day!
In later years, teaching a "capstone course" on engineering design, I used this calamity as one example that professionalism and good judgement are essential when building a new, risky technology.
E.g., if eminent experts on O-rings say "don't use O-rings this way", don't ignore them. Or when orbital mechanics experts warn you about putting too many satellites in similar orbits, take heed.
