Seconds From Disaster S3E18 - Space Shuttle Explosion - Challenger disaster - English

[poodtang1]

The President Nixon made a huge mistake by canceling the Apolo Program.

That plus the mostly wasteful Shuttle years. We should have had a base on the moon now.

[poodtang1]

What was the point of the Shuttle program. What did it accomplish ?

[MrsNorris55]

@poodtang1 It's the same as with any scientific projects: they are steps along a very long road ... this might've led to the moon and then the nearby planets, and then deeper into space ... if they hadn't buggered it up so badly.

[VERGIS92]

@poodtang1 is this a serious question? Without the space shuttle you could not send people on space to repair and maintain satellites, maintain the Hubble telescope and do other experiments. The satellite servicing part alone saved many billions, and helped keep communications, and GPS working, then it's the knowledge from the Shuttle itself that went into commercial airliners and made them safer

[Donny18088]

Aimhigh59; ice on the tank did not stop the countdown for the Columbia disaster.

[MrAlvinSinfulSong]

This shows never play with mother Earth.

[sardanaphalus]

@MrAlvinSinfulSong It shows that decisions should not be made by "groupthink" and by people with conflicts of interest (safety vs delays and costs).

[craigdragon17]

@sardanaphalus and it is funny how often those two thing coincide.

[SeadogDriftwood]

32:05 - THE TWANG

[vogelbekdier97]

i mean at the airport.

[vogelbekdier97]

Haven't watched the whole thing yet, but they didn't have de-icing things, like on the airport?

[deedubya286]

@vogelbekdier97 Ice build-up on an aircraft wing can distort the shape and cause a loss of lift which can lead to a stall and crash.

The ice itself was not a serious problem for the shuttle. It was an indication that the temperatures were far below the design specs of the rocket boosters and this mission should never have been flown under those conditions. It was the cold temperatures, not the surface ice, that cause the O-rings to fail.

[VERGIS92]

@deedubya286 exactly, and it was Richard Feynman who figured this out, and he was also critical of the management structure within NASA, they should employ physicists like him to make decisions and oversee projects

[aimhigh59]

@vogelbekdier97 There was no ice on the orbiter itself. The ice was on the pad structure. The water lines were left dripping to keep the pipes from bursting just like you do in the north. Ice build up on the tank or orbiter would have prevented the countdown from even happening.