I first saw this film when I was 8 years old and studying the accident. To this day I get chills from the step by step analysis showing how the shuttle came apart. To think that such a beautiful spacecraft was destroyed in the blink of an eye is horrifying to say the least.
I'll never forget that day.... My dad worked on the shuttle and built most of the maneuvering thrusters. He felt terrible about the disaster even though he never came close to the boosters. Most of his work was in the nose of the shuttle.
@xXDEICIDE216Xx Boosters and one of the objects was later confirmed as the crew cabin. Other astronauts say they can guarantee the crew (being so far away from the explosion because they were on top of the rocket) definitely survived the breech and lived until impacting the ocean at 200+ mph. Scary way to go out but I bet every one of those astronauts would prefer that departure over any other method of death. We will never forget their heroic efforts; we should all be grateful.
Ground controll: Flight controllers your looking very carefully at the situation odviosly a major malfunction.
Flight controll: MALFUNCTION?? The damb shit blew up and you call that a mal functin??
Ok thats not what they said but strangely every one seemed very calm when their million dollar shuttle blew into millions of peices killing all the crew!
The cause of this accident wasn't the o-ring. The cause was management putting their goals ahead of that of their own engineers who knew those boosters inside and out and advised a strong NO GO for launch. Human stupidity is what caused this disaster.
@violacrb Thanks for reply. I wonder if the guys taking the 'ride' in the shuttle knew that. The Appolo guys did fully understand the risks knowing their background and no bullshit attitudes.
I've seen a BBC documentary twice now that interviewed the engineers who worked fro the contracting company that built the booster rockets for the shuttles. They told NASA the day before Challenger's launch that they were adament the boolsters would blow up on the launch pad if the suttle took off under the weather conditions it had and would experience. NASA asked for confirmation and their boss said the shuttle could launch and NASA, aware of the engineers statments went with the boss' vote.
Interesting how the end of the video states "faulty design", as if the engineers failed to properly design the system. In truth, the engineers repeatedly warned NASA management of the O-ring risk, long before launch day. NASA leadership is the villain in this story.
@CaptainMacNasty On an earlier part, the engineers reported that 1/3rd of the O-ring had burned through. A manager looked at this and announced that they had a safety factor of 3, and that the design was safe. Of course, they had a safety factor of 0 (negative, really) and the design had already failed, but the engineers couldn't convince NASA that it was something worth spending money on.
That's how engineering goes, sometimes. We make progress, but at the cost of lives.
Improper o-ring seals caused it. They were aware of the problem in 77 and nothing extensive was done to fix. The decision to launch in record low temps was dumb. They were just trying to please Congress, delaying the launch would've make them look dumb.
I guess the phrase "all who were involved" is misleading. I meant in general as you say the managers that made the decision. I know all about Roger Boisjoly . I know most of what happened from my research over the years .
Probably the most stupid thing that could have happened. Especialy with having a civilian on the shuttle. All who were involved should have thought twice , and then 2 more times about launching with all the physical evidence that was presented. This is why so many organizations stress business ethics.
@bluestrapsify Some people did think twice. Don't blame everyone involved because the engineers knew it was unsafe and tried to stop the launch. Do a search for a guy called Roger Boisjoly. He was a chief engineer at Morton Thiokol who built the SRB's. His team knew that the cold would affect the seals in the boosters. His managers over-rode him and gave a go to NASA to launch. NASA managers were also to blame because they put pressure on the Thiokol managers to get a go for launch.
Very intriguing. Thanks for posting this. The one part which showed the flame slowly creeping out of the SRB and into the tank was, well..scary. First time I'd ever seen this clip.
Good Video....I know it is a tragedy and I remember watching it in grade 7 on T.V. We must remember never to stop exploring and never stop being brave. Thanks for the Vid. R.I.P. crew of Challenger....
I don't know about you guys. But when this guy started breaking the incident down from prior to ignition to the seconds after the failure and began explaining what was going on, it was probably the eeriest and most horrible thing I had ever heard. Those heros weren't killed by an explosion, they were ripped apart by the forces inherent with space travel. Absolutely horrifying.
Definitely proof of what can happen when managers ignore what engineers tell them and base their decisions on meeting time lines and budgets. It could have all been avoided.
As Richard Feynman said in his report, the decision to launch was based on the fact that previous launches in cold weather had been successful(although 15 degrees warmer). He equated this thinking its ok to continue playing Russian Roulette, because the gun hadn't fired yet.
Thanks roamingcoat for that analagy! That is more closer to the truth then any thing else i have read on here. They had already cancelled the lift-off several times already so..they figured lets just do it,it doesn't look the weather is going to change,lots of money is riding on it getting off the ground so they took a dangerous chance even when they knew the possibilities. The rest is history !
Really sad to see the incredibly brave people board the shuttle that morning. Smiling and shaking hands with the technicians in the clean room... The state of space flight in this country right now is abysmal. We need to fully embrace the concept of space exploration, its the forward push of the human race! America's tepid regard for NASA is a reflection of how fall America has fallen. What a shame.
Nice to see a REPORT. Just facts and all the information needed, no effort make it look more dramatic (sad music, fake loud bang, crying children, other play on viewer's emotions). That's how a docummentary should look like, of course it will be boring for most of people.
Has anyone else ever read 'Riding Rockets' by Astronaut Mike Mullane? He gives fantastic coverage of NASA and Thiokol's bungling leading up to and after this disaster. Suggest a read. It was a fantastic book in general but his account of the Challenger disaster was moving and outrageous at the same time.
I wasn't born for years after this disaster but it still causes me distress and sadness when I see this footage. R.I.P the crew of STS-51L.
I was surprised that History Channel didn't run their documentary on the Challenger disaster yesterday. I seem to remember a very in depth program they did on it
Wasn't the gist of the outcome of the investigation that NASA was under a lot of pressure to launch that day in conditions that were less than ideal. Wasn't there pressure from above to make it work that day?
@stw2323 All that and the management for the contractors in charge of the rocket boosters didn't take the concerns of the engineers seriously months before the mission until the last second, and STILL decided, at the last minute, to give the flight their blessing with all the evidence of a possible "major malfunction". It all boiled down to the contractors worrying about their contract with NASA if they didn't go along with NASA's desire to launch that day.
@Pitterpotter2 And I'm guessing you refer to America as the United States of America. America is a whole continent, please remember that. There are plenty of people and cultures in America and not just US citizens. If you are talking about the whole continent, then thank you.
@Pitterpotter2 God dude, you make me sick. We are all the fucki*g same people, the only difference is the people who controls us and which cultures we prefer. It was an american budget and arrogance that contributed to this horrible accident. May the crew rest in peace and remembered as great scientists and heroes.
I think most people remember where they were that day . . . just like 9/11. I was 15 yrs old and I was playing hooky from school (pretending to be sick). I was laying on the couch trying to look pitiful and just happened to turned on the TV. Flipped through a couple of channels and saw the space shuttle about to launch (T minus 15 seconds). I was like, "cool, wasn't expecting this." Ended up being one of the saddest days of my life next to 9/11. I'll never forget that day.
They should of lauched all these rockets and space shuttles from where they were built in the first place, in Southern California where the weather is always perfect. No million dollars a day delays and no freezing fuel tank o-rings. Then things like this wouldn'd happen. Why the hell Florida, they can even get presidential elections right.
@amg601 Florida is used because the area to the east in unpopulated (Atlantic ocean). Rockets generally launch to the east in order to use the rotation of the Earth to decrease the fuel they need to use. Vandenberg AFB is used to launch rockets in polar orbit (North-South), but that's not appropriate for all missions and requires more fuel. The shuttle flight after Challenger's STS-51-L was supposed to launch from California, but because of the disaster, the CA site was never used by shuttles.
@roamingcroat Thank you for that explanation. I'm still upset that this probably could have been prevented. Do you think the cost of fuel outways the cost of delays. The delays was because of bad weather that was the reason they launched the shuttle in freezing tempertures instead as waiting for it to get warmer. Then the seals wouldn't have cracked because the fuel tank was already frozen, cold weather just made it worst. You know the same thing happen to the Columbia, due to freezing temp.
@amg601 It's a little more complicated than cost. The Apollo Moon missions would have been impossible (or at least much, much more difficult, from a technical standpoint) if launched from CA. With all that infrastructure there, it made sense to stay in FL for the shuttle. Plus, missions that need easterly orbits would be impossible from CA because the shuttle would fly over populated areas - which is a bad idea. That's why the shuttle never launches due north or south from FL - only east.
Also, Columbia's problem had nothing to do with temps (it was around 60 deg. when STS-107 launched). It was a tank problem that NASA had on a large number of flights over the course of 22 years. They had seen it so often, they started ignoring it. A chunk of foam like the one that crippled Columbia damaged Atlantis' SRB on STS-112 (a few months before STS-107), and NASA decided it wasn't an issue and let the shuttle fly without fixing the foam problem. They put on blinders, just like Challenger.
Pad 39B where Challenger launched was deactivated a couple of years ago to prepare it for use by project Constellation. It wasn't to turn it into a memorial site, but with the cancellation of the Constellation program, who knows what it's future holds? Pad 34 is the only one that I'm aware of that was turned into a memorial site...for the Apollo 1 accident.
@lucioarnulfo IKR we watched it in school today the video and after all our mouths were open with shock some kids were crying i just sat there with my mouth open
@deathbygoose No ur DEAD WRONG they were NOWERE close to water they died on explosion impact there was nothing left but ashes they never recoverd there bodies
@SimonsGal123 NO you're DEAD WRONG. They were intact and alive when they fell to their deaths in their capsule. Once they hit the water from 65,000 ft did they die. They recovered all the bodies 6 weeks later. Engineers never thought to put a parachute on the capsule. It's been documented everywhere with details.
I was four years old. I didn't know what was happening. I remember my Dad was very excited about this day. So, we all sat down and watched. Everyone was jumping and so happy, then, the room went silent and I was fire and smoke. That was the first time I remember seeing my parents sad. Bless those people's families.
i wish i could go back in time and tell them watever you do dont go on that space ship i will xplode but i cant and i watched this for a few and it made me so sad in heart :{
not having watched the whole thing yet, i have to say that i think the whole problem was everyone jsut got cocky. i think everyone forgot just how new space travel is and how dangerous the entire situation is in general.
you really have to respect the entire situation; every tiny detail is important. no matter how routine space travel can seem, it is still space travel and there really isn't any way it could truly become routine.
@alixinthemiddle And we still have airplanes that go boom also. There was no operational or installation problem in this case. It was a design flaw from the beginning.
@aimhigh59 I could never understand why the boosters where made in sections. I used to make firework rockets, and I would never even considered trying to fix the high preasure/temp segments together. The boosters are indead badly designed.
@mcwolfus They were made in segments for transportation purposes. Built in Utah and shipped in segments. Since they are full of fuel when shipped, they are to heavy.
@TheArfdog The shuttle is made to land like a plane. the crew compartment flew off in the explosion on accident, this was never planned and was never supposed to be a contingency procedure. There wasn't supposed to be a need for a parachute.
@TheArfdog I believe they've installed some sort of bailout system for the crew compartment. I think ejection seats. But they didn't exactly learn, considering how much they continued to ignore problems, causing Columbia's accident.
@thesnorklemonkey It's actually a pole the astronauts can use to slide out the hatch in case of an emergency. The orbiter needs to be in level, controlled flight without the solid rocket boosters or the external tank and I think it even has to be subsonic. The bailout pole probably wouldn't have made Challenger survivable. It gives the crew an option in the case of certain kinds of engine failures - mostly failures of the main engines - and in case of a botched landing.
And that's how I spent my 26th birthday ... watching Challenger explode: over ... and over ... and over. Anyone else notice that all American astronaut deaths have occurred over a 5 day period on the calendar? Apollo 1 - Jan 27th, Challenger - Jan 28th, Columbia - Feb 1st. Strange anomaly...
@YouCanSaveTheMole - I was 26 at that time myself. I was home with my daughters that day, my youngest being just two months old. (She's 25 today--Nov 9). My middle daughter we named named Bonnie K. Dunbar, after astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar. I feel the connection to this day so much. Brave individuals engaged in such an exciting and tragic mission. Rest in peace.
And that's how I spent my 26th birthday ... watching Challenger explode: over ... and over ... and over. Anyone else notice that all American astronaut deaths have occurred over a 5 day period on the calendar? Apollo 1 - Jan 27th, Challenger - Jan 28th, Columbia - Feb 1st. Strange anomaly...
I was born in the 1st week of September in 1985, so Although I *WAS* Alive when the Challenger Disaster happened, it happened on January 28, 1986, so it happened 7 days before I became 6 Months-Old, so I don't remember it. but I watched videos of this launch over the last couple weeks, & I watched a video yesterday of a shuttle launch that took place in 2006...& The craziest thing, during the Challenger's Launch, Pilot Mike Smith, was REAL INVOLVED & in 2006 Everything was already taken care of
@brickerproductions And you are such a critical stupid commentator! He was not stupid, just a NASA technician looking at some computer screens and saying what he knew at that second based on data he was seeing. People were not sure that everyone on board was killed yet. Many civilian people in the grandstands at that moment were still smiling and saying "wow! cool!", thinking that all the smoke and extra smoke trails were just a booster stage shooting away from the rocket or something.
this may sound stupid question but did they died instantly or did they die later wen they falled in the water. srry my bad engilsh i just learned english
@theslug1022 The g-forces experienced at Break-up were not sufficient to cause death or serious injury. It was the impact with the water that was the fatal blow.
@MrBennetzen Of course! finally someone understands. G-forces wouldve not caused that much damage! It was the speed of hitting to water. they didnt die when the space ship blew up. they died when they hit the water. going at that speed it was like hitting a wall. (water)
i dont exactly know. but i heard, that on not anyone died (the shhuttle didnt exploded the tank and the SRBs exploded and it dragged the shhutle into pieces , some died on the explosion and on the fall but i heard 1 or 2 survived the explosion and the fall cuz the cockpit seperated and splashed down into water. then their survive package hold them alive for 2 mins, then they died cuz they had no air left. if that story is true, i cant rly apologise but watch the docus about the explosion :)
these people didnt deserve to die i mean look at them happily walking to the launch pad. why do these things have to happen? well atleast we laerned from this and hopefull it wont happen again
@HugoJCox Yes, at the time of the accident they had no means of escape. During the first four flights of the shuttle the astronauts wore pressure suits and had ejection seats so if anything happened the had a chance to escape. After STS-4 they decided that the ejection seats or means of escape in flight were not necessary. So the went with the blue fight suits. Big Mistake.
@MrBennetzen Actually, only Columbia had ejection seats, and only for the cammander and pilot. There is no way to install ejection seats for other crewmembers because of how the cabin is built. Also, later analysis indicated that if anyone had ever used the seats, they would've passed through the plume of the SRBs and been killed, so no shuttle crewman has ever truly had a means of launch escape.
@RCAvhstape True, Columbia had ejection seats but there were for altitudes up to 100,000 ft and only used for the Orbital Flight Test Program. For STS-5 the seats were deactivated and eventually removed. I heard that if the rest of the fleet had an equivilent of an escape pod both the crews of Challenger and Columbia would have survived.
I was in 6th grade when this happened and it was life changing to a degree. Most classrooms had a TV broadcasting the launch and to see it happen live was shocking... kinda the same feeling I had when I saw the first tower fall on live TV.
@zzddytt well in technical terms it was obvioulsy too cold and frosted one of the jet fueltanks and they have had malfunctiuns and they THOUGHT it was taken care of so thos 2 dont mix so it caused the explosion
I first saw this film when I was 8 years old and studying the accident. To this day I get chills from the step by step analysis showing how the shuttle came apart. To think that such a beautiful spacecraft was destroyed in the blink of an eye is horrifying to say the least.
Godspeed to the crew of STS 51-L.
HeliosPhoenix 2 days ago
Does anybody think this was just a NASA science experiment gone wrong?
jaroncreed 3 days ago
I'll never forget that day.... My dad worked on the shuttle and built most of the maneuvering thrusters. He felt terrible about the disaster even though he never came close to the boosters. Most of his work was in the nose of the shuttle.
LetsFlyWa 2 weeks ago 3
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molestador 1 month ago
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molestador 1 month ago
That was a Very Cold day in Central Florida, The Plum is still burnt in my brain forever!
MrHideyoursheep 2 months ago
Cool mrnasa
TheAthaphond19 3 months ago
After the explosion, what were the 2 object the camera was following as the fell back down to the ground? boosters?
xXDEICIDE216Xx 4 months ago
@xXDEICIDE216Xx Yes, they were the solid rocket boosters.
HawkinsDigital 4 months ago
@xXDEICIDE216Xx Boosters and one of the objects was later confirmed as the crew cabin. Other astronauts say they can guarantee the crew (being so far away from the explosion because they were on top of the rocket) definitely survived the breech and lived until impacting the ocean at 200+ mph. Scary way to go out but I bet every one of those astronauts would prefer that departure over any other method of death. We will never forget their heroic efforts; we should all be grateful.
ColeFried81 1 month ago
1 token black guy and 2 token females.
qothesa 5 months ago
@qothesa Yes thats correct, 3 tokens !
007bondspy 1 month ago
12:51 "We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded"
YOU FUCKING THINK???
riddleman65 6 months ago
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Ground controll: Flight controllers your looking very carefully at the situation odviosly a major malfunction.
Flight controll: MALFUNCTION?? The damb shit blew up and you call that a mal functin??
Ok thats not what they said but strangely every one seemed very calm when their million dollar shuttle blew into millions of peices killing all the crew!
tinkerminka 6 months ago
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tinkerminka 6 months ago
The cause of this accident wasn't the o-ring. The cause was management putting their goals ahead of that of their own engineers who knew those boosters inside and out and advised a strong NO GO for launch. Human stupidity is what caused this disaster.
jazzguitar2010 6 months ago 27
@jazzguitar2010
Gotta feel sorry for that poor bastard that could see it coming and was totally ignored
bshaun2 5 days ago
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Check my comments page for information about the Pre-January 8th version of Inception.
jamestargetedindiv 6 months ago
Good people lost, hope it was not for nothing.
Bad management is the murder of this wonderful people.
MrTheEvilgerman 6 months ago
These guys are gambling at 100:1 with their lives.
mcwolfus 7 months ago
@mcwolfus Not even that. Space shuttle odds are about 68:1. Apollo, if you include the pad fire, was 11:1
violacrb 7 months ago
@violacrb Thanks for reply. I wonder if the guys taking the 'ride' in the shuttle knew that. The Appolo guys did fully understand the risks knowing their background and no bullshit attitudes.
mcwolfus 7 months ago
I've seen a BBC documentary twice now that interviewed the engineers who worked fro the contracting company that built the booster rockets for the shuttles. They told NASA the day before Challenger's launch that they were adament the boolsters would blow up on the launch pad if the suttle took off under the weather conditions it had and would experience. NASA asked for confirmation and their boss said the shuttle could launch and NASA, aware of the engineers statments went with the boss' vote.
DaveM599 7 months ago
@DaveM599 There was a question mark about o ring performance a such low temperatures. Space flight is dangerous and always will be.
mcwolfus 7 months ago
Interesting how the end of the video states "faulty design", as if the engineers failed to properly design the system. In truth, the engineers repeatedly warned NASA management of the O-ring risk, long before launch day. NASA leadership is the villain in this story.
CaptainMacNasty 8 months ago
@CaptainMacNasty On an earlier part, the engineers reported that 1/3rd of the O-ring had burned through. A manager looked at this and announced that they had a safety factor of 3, and that the design was safe. Of course, they had a safety factor of 0 (negative, really) and the design had already failed, but the engineers couldn't convince NASA that it was something worth spending money on.
That's how engineering goes, sometimes. We make progress, but at the cost of lives.
roamingcroat 8 months ago
Improper o-ring seals caused it. They were aware of the problem in 77 and nothing extensive was done to fix. The decision to launch in record low temps was dumb. They were just trying to please Congress, delaying the launch would've make them look dumb.
bhoch08 8 months ago
@bhoch08 NASA stands for needs another seven astronaugts
spacepatrolman 5 months ago
Here's a weird fact. The crew was a live for 2 and a half minutes before hitting the water and being killed on impact...
yesiamawizardjonny 8 months ago
@yesiamawizardjonny They may not have been conscious the whole time, though.
jjobie 7 months ago 2
They're putting on things thinking they'll go into space. Nope...
yesiamawizardjonny 8 months ago
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wahyoe39 9 months ago
they had no idea they were going to die in the next 2hrs.
Athanlas 9 months ago
Nice vid will miss space shuttle program
EstesRocketFAN 9 months ago
After the accident; did they found the astronauts still in the cabin in the water?
Jarnoparoni 10 months ago
@Jarnoparoni They recovered all seven, and went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that.
ManEatingSharks 9 months ago
I guess the phrase "all who were involved" is misleading. I meant in general as you say the managers that made the decision. I know all about Roger Boisjoly . I know most of what happened from my research over the years .
bluestrapsify 10 months ago
I find it ironic that all of NASA's main disasters have occured within a week in terms of dates (not including the years):
APOLLO 1: January 27th 1967
CHALLENGER: January 28th 1986
COLUMBIA: February 1st 2003
dave46563 10 months ago
@dave46563 so wats next?
luda242o 9 months ago
February 9th right ill keep ma eyes open
luda242o 9 months ago
Probably the most stupid thing that could have happened. Especialy with having a civilian on the shuttle. All who were involved should have thought twice , and then 2 more times about launching with all the physical evidence that was presented. This is why so many organizations stress business ethics.
bluestrapsify 10 months ago
@bluestrapsify Some people did think twice. Don't blame everyone involved because the engineers knew it was unsafe and tried to stop the launch. Do a search for a guy called Roger Boisjoly. He was a chief engineer at Morton Thiokol who built the SRB's. His team knew that the cold would affect the seals in the boosters. His managers over-rode him and gave a go to NASA to launch. NASA managers were also to blame because they put pressure on the Thiokol managers to get a go for launch.
dave46563 10 months ago
Hydrogen leak... how "obvious".
1Nekit1 10 months ago
Very intriguing. Thanks for posting this. The one part which showed the flame slowly creeping out of the SRB and into the tank was, well..scary. First time I'd ever seen this clip.
darthfurious80 10 months ago
Good Video....I know it is a tragedy and I remember watching it in grade 7 on T.V. We must remember never to stop exploring and never stop being brave. Thanks for the Vid. R.I.P. crew of Challenger....
banshee01ful 10 months ago
@banshee01ful I was in the 7th grade when this happened as well.
tbone2872 10 months ago
did they died?
blmn23 11 months ago
@blmn23 no youre dieded
fatsmut 11 months ago
@blmn23 all 7 crew members died
chriisisaman5 10 months ago
has anyone notice how the reporter says '' HUH;;;;HUH''''HUH'''HUH'''' LOTS OF TIMES OVER AND OVER .
cadaverock 11 months ago
I don't know about you guys. But when this guy started breaking the incident down from prior to ignition to the seconds after the failure and began explaining what was going on, it was probably the eeriest and most horrible thing I had ever heard. Those heros weren't killed by an explosion, they were ripped apart by the forces inherent with space travel. Absolutely horrifying.
Soldier334 11 months ago
Definitely proof of what can happen when managers ignore what engineers tell them and base their decisions on meeting time lines and budgets. It could have all been avoided.
As Richard Feynman said in his report, the decision to launch was based on the fact that previous launches in cold weather had been successful(although 15 degrees warmer). He equated this thinking its ok to continue playing Russian Roulette, because the gun hadn't fired yet.
Adrift247 11 months ago
Thanks roamingcoat for that analagy! That is more closer to the truth then any thing else i have read on here. They had already cancelled the lift-off several times already so..they figured lets just do it,it doesn't look the weather is going to change,lots of money is riding on it getting off the ground so they took a dangerous chance even when they knew the possibilities. The rest is history !
rv57able 11 months ago
Really sad to see the incredibly brave people board the shuttle that morning. Smiling and shaking hands with the technicians in the clean room... The state of space flight in this country right now is abysmal. We need to fully embrace the concept of space exploration, its the forward push of the human race! America's tepid regard for NASA is a reflection of how fall America has fallen. What a shame.
TheWheels777 11 months ago
srbs got damaged due to low temp and there was a black smoke on one srb
Jamjam476 11 months ago
ฺBest of REPORT
DJhongAmp 11 months ago
Nice to see a REPORT. Just facts and all the information needed, no effort make it look more dramatic (sad music, fake loud bang, crying children, other play on viewer's emotions). That's how a docummentary should look like, of course it will be boring for most of people.
Parkinson9999 11 months ago 3
Has anyone else ever read 'Riding Rockets' by Astronaut Mike Mullane? He gives fantastic coverage of NASA and Thiokol's bungling leading up to and after this disaster. Suggest a read. It was a fantastic book in general but his account of the Challenger disaster was moving and outrageous at the same time.
I wasn't born for years after this disaster but it still causes me distress and sadness when I see this footage. R.I.P the crew of STS-51L.
jonvoltage1 1 year ago 12
@texaslawman22 you can't possibly be THAT ignorant
chubas41 1 year ago
I was surprised that History Channel didn't run their documentary on the Challenger disaster yesterday. I seem to remember a very in depth program they did on it
stw2323 1 year ago
NASA-Need Another Seven Astronauts. i was a freshman in high school when this happened and that was one of the jokes back in the day.
gonzola88 1 year ago
Wasn't the gist of the outcome of the investigation that NASA was under a lot of pressure to launch that day in conditions that were less than ideal. Wasn't there pressure from above to make it work that day?
stw2323 1 year ago
@stw2323 All that and the management for the contractors in charge of the rocket boosters didn't take the concerns of the engineers seriously months before the mission until the last second, and STILL decided, at the last minute, to give the flight their blessing with all the evidence of a possible "major malfunction". It all boiled down to the contractors worrying about their contract with NASA if they didn't go along with NASA's desire to launch that day.
666Dominatice666 1 year ago
Look, the flag on the side is still there.
America really does stay together in the worst of times and I'm sure there is a reason it stayed.
God bless America.
Pitterpotter2 1 year ago
@Pitterpotter2 And I'm guessing you refer to America as the United States of America. America is a whole continent, please remember that. There are plenty of people and cultures in America and not just US citizens. If you are talking about the whole continent, then thank you.
Laloloop 1 year ago
@Laloloop Give the guy a break. He is trying to be positive.
666Dominatice666 1 year ago
@Pitterpotter2 God dude, you make me sick. We are all the fucki*g same people, the only difference is the people who controls us and which cultures we prefer. It was an american budget and arrogance that contributed to this horrible accident. May the crew rest in peace and remembered as great scientists and heroes.
LucasSchaaf 10 months ago
@LucasSchaaf I'm sorry if you were offended, I was just complimenting my country an I'm proud of it.
I think that so many other countries are together as one, but it just so happens this was the USA.
Pitterpotter2 10 months ago
I think most people remember where they were that day . . . just like 9/11. I was 15 yrs old and I was playing hooky from school (pretending to be sick). I was laying on the couch trying to look pitiful and just happened to turned on the TV. Flipped through a couple of channels and saw the space shuttle about to launch (T minus 15 seconds). I was like, "cool, wasn't expecting this." Ended up being one of the saddest days of my life next to 9/11. I'll never forget that day.
pogofx 1 year ago 2
NASA never should've launched that day. They were told it was to cold!!! It should've never happened.
01po01po 1 year ago
They should of lauched all these rockets and space shuttles from where they were built in the first place, in Southern California where the weather is always perfect. No million dollars a day delays and no freezing fuel tank o-rings. Then things like this wouldn'd happen. Why the hell Florida, they can even get presidential elections right.
amg601 1 year ago
@amg601 Florida is used because the area to the east in unpopulated (Atlantic ocean). Rockets generally launch to the east in order to use the rotation of the Earth to decrease the fuel they need to use. Vandenberg AFB is used to launch rockets in polar orbit (North-South), but that's not appropriate for all missions and requires more fuel. The shuttle flight after Challenger's STS-51-L was supposed to launch from California, but because of the disaster, the CA site was never used by shuttles.
roamingcroat 1 year ago
@roamingcroat Thank you for that explanation. I'm still upset that this probably could have been prevented. Do you think the cost of fuel outways the cost of delays. The delays was because of bad weather that was the reason they launched the shuttle in freezing tempertures instead as waiting for it to get warmer. Then the seals wouldn't have cracked because the fuel tank was already frozen, cold weather just made it worst. You know the same thing happen to the Columbia, due to freezing temp.
amg601 1 year ago
@amg601 It's a little more complicated than cost. The Apollo Moon missions would have been impossible (or at least much, much more difficult, from a technical standpoint) if launched from CA. With all that infrastructure there, it made sense to stay in FL for the shuttle. Plus, missions that need easterly orbits would be impossible from CA because the shuttle would fly over populated areas - which is a bad idea. That's why the shuttle never launches due north or south from FL - only east.
roamingcroat 1 year ago
Also, Columbia's problem had nothing to do with temps (it was around 60 deg. when STS-107 launched). It was a tank problem that NASA had on a large number of flights over the course of 22 years. They had seen it so often, they started ignoring it. A chunk of foam like the one that crippled Columbia damaged Atlantis' SRB on STS-112 (a few months before STS-107), and NASA decided it wasn't an issue and let the shuttle fly without fixing the foam problem. They put on blinders, just like Challenger.
roamingcroat 1 year ago
Rest in peace
they were all so daring
their families should
be so proud of them ~ S
OfficalPoserBusterr 1 year ago
oh my god....
I'm speechless by how horrible this is
RIP those who died in the challenger
god bless their families
;-;
InvaderSkat 1 year ago
Pad 39B where Challenger launched was deactivated a couple of years ago to prepare it for use by project Constellation. It wasn't to turn it into a memorial site, but with the cancellation of the Constellation program, who knows what it's future holds? Pad 34 is the only one that I'm aware of that was turned into a memorial site...for the Apollo 1 accident.
jlforester 1 year ago
my teacher said they recently closed down that site where it launched
iheartkathyy 1 year ago
terrible
tcav819 1 year ago
this is so sad i saw this in skool and i was like holy chiz
lucioarnulfo 1 year ago
@lucioarnulfo IKR we watched it in school today the video and after all our mouths were open with shock some kids were crying i just sat there with my mouth open
SimonsGal123 1 year ago
so basically the crew pit cabin was still tact after the explosion and they just fell to their death?
drmalex87 1 year ago
@drmalex87 Yes, some of them didn't die until they hit the water... Very sad.
RIP
deathbygoose 1 year ago
@deathbygoose No ur DEAD WRONG they were NOWERE close to water they died on explosion impact there was nothing left but ashes they never recoverd there bodies
SimonsGal123 1 year ago
@SimonsGal123 NO you're DEAD WRONG. They were intact and alive when they fell to their deaths in their capsule. Once they hit the water from 65,000 ft did they die. They recovered all the bodies 6 weeks later. Engineers never thought to put a parachute on the capsule. It's been documented everywhere with details.
msnbc.msn.com/id/11031097/ns/technology_and_science-space/
Funkydoobiest 1 year ago
@SimonsGal123 No, I'm dead right :p.
NASA has actually released the full story somewhere, they were near water, and they were alive until they hit it. At least some of them were, anyway.
deathbygoose 1 year ago
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@SimonsGal123 You're a total idiot...
yesiamawizardjonny 8 months ago
@deathbygoose I didn't think anyone else remembered that. I think they said back then that is was a 7 minute fall.
I'll never forget that day. So surreal.
01po01po 1 year ago
@drmalex87 probably
DLPBurke 11 months ago
@drmalex87 it was not an explosion.
DLPBurke 11 months ago
booooooooooo i hate this vid
rockstargirl383 1 year ago
I was four years old. I didn't know what was happening. I remember my Dad was very excited about this day. So, we all sat down and watched. Everyone was jumping and so happy, then, the room went silent and I was fire and smoke. That was the first time I remember seeing my parents sad. Bless those people's families.
JenniferRox08 1 year ago
I was 9 years old and was like "what the fuck"?
jgatorful 1 year ago
Holy crap.....
legendary10101 1 year ago
God bless them. Still makes me choke up.
daaborion 1 year ago
I'm watching ghosts
BrandonJay1983 1 year ago 17
@BrandonJay1983 sad, but so true.
Erik0072 8 months ago
Excuse me while I kiss the sky.....but only for a moment. RIP
tryithere 1 year ago
i wish i could go back in time and tell them watever you do dont go on that space ship i will xplode but i cant and i watched this for a few and it made me so sad in heart :{
ghost27rsr 1 year ago
Love the NASA !!!!!!!!!
SATYAMMALHOTRA 1 year ago
not having watched the whole thing yet, i have to say that i think the whole problem was everyone jsut got cocky. i think everyone forgot just how new space travel is and how dangerous the entire situation is in general.
you really have to respect the entire situation; every tiny detail is important. no matter how routine space travel can seem, it is still space travel and there really isn't any way it could truly become routine.
alixinthemiddle 1 year ago 19
@alixinthemiddle Just like there is no way breaking the sound barrier could become routine.....
TheMrchrisodonnell 9 months ago
@TheMrchrisodonnell
and that isn't something we just do, either. pilots take their time checking and double checking everything to make sure they don't go boom.
alixinthemiddle 9 months ago
@alixinthemiddle Despite having to do safety checks it's still something that's common and regularly done. i.e routine.
TheMrchrisodonnell 9 months ago
@alixinthemiddle And we still have airplanes that go boom also. There was no operational or installation problem in this case. It was a design flaw from the beginning.
aimhigh59 9 months ago
@aimhigh59 There was an operational problem. Weather was too cold for launch.
ilkkavu 8 months ago
@ilkkavu No. It was an O-Ring that was damaged. The boosters separated at throttle up.
yesiamawizardjonny 8 months ago
@aimhigh59 I could never understand why the boosters where made in sections. I used to make firework rockets, and I would never even considered trying to fix the high preasure/temp segments together. The boosters are indead badly designed.
mcwolfus 7 months ago
@mcwolfus They were made in segments for transportation purposes. Built in Utah and shipped in segments. Since they are full of fuel when shipped, they are to heavy.
aimhigh59 7 months ago
@aimhigh59 thanks for the reply. The rockets would have been better fixed and fueled on site. The seals will always be a weak area, but point taken.
mcwolfus 7 months ago
@mcwolfus Yea, if it were a business everything would be done at the launch site but politics plays a lot into a gov. organization.
aimhigh59 7 months ago
Comment removed
DGK284 3 months ago
@alixinthemiddle airplane flights can seem routine, but there is always risk, and thats the risk we take when we go to space.
Doctor699 7 months ago
that is so creepy that i watched this today i didnt know that it happened on january 28th...thats exactly 25 years ago to this day...creepy.
SoJustCool 1 year ago
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jeannottessy 1 year ago
How come the crew module, if it survived, didn't have a parachute?
TheArfdog 1 year ago
@TheArfdog The shuttle is made to land like a plane. the crew compartment flew off in the explosion on accident, this was never planned and was never supposed to be a contingency procedure. There wasn't supposed to be a need for a parachute.
thesnorklemonkey 1 year ago
@thesnorklemonkey Hopefully NASA learned from that very major oversight (especially considering even regular aircraft have escape mechanisms).
TheArfdog 1 year ago
@TheArfdog I believe they've installed some sort of bailout system for the crew compartment. I think ejection seats. But they didn't exactly learn, considering how much they continued to ignore problems, causing Columbia's accident.
thesnorklemonkey 1 year ago
@thesnorklemonkey It's actually a pole the astronauts can use to slide out the hatch in case of an emergency. The orbiter needs to be in level, controlled flight without the solid rocket boosters or the external tank and I think it even has to be subsonic. The bailout pole probably wouldn't have made Challenger survivable. It gives the crew an option in the case of certain kinds of engine failures - mostly failures of the main engines - and in case of a botched landing.
roamingcroat 1 year ago
I MEANT TO SAY " UNBELIEVABLE ! ! ! SOMETHING AS
SIMPLE AS A RUBBER ( O - RING ) , WAS SUCH A MAJOR
OVERSIGHT ! ! ! INCLUDING THE FRIGID TEMPERATURES ,
OF COURSE ! ! !
MrDAVIDEO84 1 year ago
UNBELIEVABLE ! ! ! SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS
A RUBBER " O - RING " , WAS A MAJOR OVERSIGHT ! ! !
MrDAVIDEO84 1 year ago
Fantastically concise and accurate description of the cause of the accident.
antimatterXXXIII 1 year ago
only if they knew...... :'(
cuteycharm0202 1 year ago
21:55 ByeBye challenger
TheSeve99 1 year ago
21:56 Gives me chills each time!
ANF4LYFE 1 year ago
thumbs up if you didnt finish this video
xxxMRAWESOMENESSxxx 1 year ago
imagine you drive to your work...
and suddenly your passing a huge space shuttle
on a rolling sorta tank.... O_o
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rhonamolinardhc 1 year ago
And that's how I spent my 26th birthday ... watching Challenger explode: over ... and over ... and over. Anyone else notice that all American astronaut deaths have occurred over a 5 day period on the calendar? Apollo 1 - Jan 27th, Challenger - Jan 28th, Columbia - Feb 1st. Strange anomaly...
YouCanSaveTheMole 1 year ago
@YouCanSaveTheMole - I was 26 at that time myself. I was home with my daughters that day, my youngest being just two months old. (She's 25 today--Nov 9). My middle daughter we named named Bonnie K. Dunbar, after astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar. I feel the connection to this day so much. Brave individuals engaged in such an exciting and tragic mission. Rest in peace.
ScotlandMy 1 year ago
And that's how I spent my 26th birthday ... watching Challenger explode: over ... and over ... and over. Anyone else notice that all American astronaut deaths have occurred over a 5 day period on the calendar? Apollo 1 - Jan 27th, Challenger - Jan 28th, Columbia - Feb 1st. Strange anomaly...
YouCanSaveTheMole 1 year ago
I was born in the 1st week of September in 1985, so Although I *WAS* Alive when the Challenger Disaster happened, it happened on January 28, 1986, so it happened 7 days before I became 6 Months-Old, so I don't remember it. but I watched videos of this launch over the last couple weeks, & I watched a video yesterday of a shuttle launch that took place in 2006...& The craziest thing, during the Challenger's Launch, Pilot Mike Smith, was REAL INVOLVED & in 2006 Everything was already taken care of
thedeem0N 1 year ago
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Backin65 1 year ago
41:23 shit sticks in a box!!! yum yum
Kg277 1 year ago
This was so cool when it happened! We got leave school and go home. We played atari all afternoon.
Kg277 1 year ago
@Kg277 You actually got to leave school because of Challenger? Damn, you're lucky.
yesiamawizardjonny 8 months ago
I turned 17 this day - watched this on TV. :(
SecularResponse 1 year ago
obiously a major malfuntion! he is so stupid, it's not like the space ship was supposed to exsplode and kill everyone on board!
brickerproductions 1 year ago
@brickerproductions And you are such a critical stupid commentator! He was not stupid, just a NASA technician looking at some computer screens and saying what he knew at that second based on data he was seeing. People were not sure that everyone on board was killed yet. Many civilian people in the grandstands at that moment were still smiling and saying "wow! cool!", thinking that all the smoke and extra smoke trails were just a booster stage shooting away from the rocket or something.
hdphoto 1 year ago
how do they know the velocity, downrange and feet per second seconds AFTER the explosion?????
robotandlegolover 1 year ago
TELL US THE TRUTH ABOUT ALIENS!!!
Copy and paste this in every video you find, even if not related to aliens!!!
Time4TruthDOTorg 1 year ago
I watch it the live boardcast of the Challenger on News watch on
RPN 9 in the Philippines. Is so sad to watch this. I think the kids are
already grown up now. But i think they never forgot their dad's and mom's
hilarioph 1 year ago
this may sound stupid question but did they died instantly or did they die later wen they falled in the water. srry my bad engilsh i just learned english
SpartanW98 1 year ago
Based on data, some if not all survived the explosion and either died due to high G's during the fall or hitting the water.
theslug1022 1 year ago
@theslug1022 The g-forces experienced at Break-up were not sufficient to cause death or serious injury. It was the impact with the water that was the fatal blow.
MrBennetzen 1 year ago
@MrBennetzen Of course! finally someone understands. G-forces wouldve not caused that much damage! It was the speed of hitting to water. they didnt die when the space ship blew up. they died when they hit the water. going at that speed it was like hitting a wall. (water)
cuteycharm0202 1 year ago
i dont exactly know. but i heard, that on not anyone died (the shhuttle didnt exploded the tank and the SRBs exploded and it dragged the shhutle into pieces , some died on the explosion and on the fall but i heard 1 or 2 survived the explosion and the fall cuz the cockpit seperated and splashed down into water. then their survive package hold them alive for 2 mins, then they died cuz they had no air left. if that story is true, i cant rly apologise but watch the docus about the explosion :)
predatortheme 1 year ago
Those suits they wore seem kind of flimsy. Were changes made after this accident that required the sturdier looking red jumpsuits they wear now?
HugoJCox 2 years ago
The suits during this flight were simple flight suits. The suits they wear since this flight are pressure suits worn during launch and re-entry.
theslug1022 1 year ago
these people didnt deserve to die i mean look at them happily walking to the launch pad. why do these things have to happen? well atleast we laerned from this and hopefull it wont happen again
SpartanW98 1 year ago
@HugoJCox Yes, at the time of the accident they had no means of escape. During the first four flights of the shuttle the astronauts wore pressure suits and had ejection seats so if anything happened the had a chance to escape. After STS-4 they decided that the ejection seats or means of escape in flight were not necessary. So the went with the blue fight suits. Big Mistake.
MrBennetzen 1 year ago
@MrBennetzen Actually, only Columbia had ejection seats, and only for the cammander and pilot. There is no way to install ejection seats for other crewmembers because of how the cabin is built. Also, later analysis indicated that if anyone had ever used the seats, they would've passed through the plume of the SRBs and been killed, so no shuttle crewman has ever truly had a means of launch escape.
RCAvhstape 1 year ago
@RCAvhstape True, Columbia had ejection seats but there were for altitudes up to 100,000 ft and only used for the Orbital Flight Test Program. For STS-5 the seats were deactivated and eventually removed. I heard that if the rest of the fleet had an equivilent of an escape pod both the crews of Challenger and Columbia would have survived.
MrBennetzen 1 year ago
11:20 the boom
TheGamerMichael 2 years ago
Thankyou for uploading this Documentary on the Detailed Analysis of this Devastating Explosion.........
kindbluey 2 years ago
I was in 6th grade when this happened and it was life changing to a degree. Most classrooms had a TV broadcasting the launch and to see it happen live was shocking... kinda the same feeling I had when I saw the first tower fall on live TV.
freemind321 2 years ago 4
at 14:27 - 14:57 you can just see the plunges in the water, from the broken parts falling down..
Fuzkerendude 2 years ago
Worst than Apollo 13
jasleil 2 years ago
"obivously a major malfunction..." What's gotta be the understatement of the century.
zzddytt 2 years ago 28
@zzddytt LMAo he had some nerve to even say anything i would have been silent what can you say its like he didnt have emmotion in his voice or shock!
langa209 1 year ago
@langa209 of course he4 didnt, you raving idiot, he is a professional.
DLPBurke 11 months ago
@zzddytt well in technical terms it was obvioulsy too cold and frosted one of the jet fueltanks and they have had malfunctiuns and they THOUGHT it was taken care of so thos 2 dont mix so it caused the explosion
SimonsGal123 1 year ago
@zzddytt LMAO...They were probably just in shock like everyone else was at the time and were in disbelief about what they just saw.
666Dominatice666 1 year ago
@zzddytt HE IS A PROFESSIONAL.
DLPBurke 11 months ago
@zzddytt and he says "Obviously"
DLPBurke 11 months ago
Airboyd, your channel is one of the best on Youtube. Greets!
Poisonseed 2 years ago 4
Fucking Morton Thiokol!
L33tP1ckL 2 years ago
The crew died at the explotion moment or time after that?
eemontero 2 years ago
They Shuttle didn't exploded..It desinigrate.
Chrisjr2007 2 years ago 3
most likely when the cabin hit the ocean. They have been alive before impact.
ftegger4347899 2 years ago
Very nice video. Good one to remember and to investigate
eemontero 2 years ago 2
Skip to 15:04 to pass by the accident footage
airboyd 2 years ago 25
at what time of this video is the video of the accident
moni370 2 years ago