Challenger - Disaster & music album

The American space shuttle, Challenger, has exploded killing all seven astronauts on board.
The five men and two women - including the first teacher in space - were just over a minute into their flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida when the Challenger blew up.

The astronauts' families, at the airbase, and millions of Americans witnessed the world's worst space disaster live on TV.

The danger from falling debris prevented rescue boats reaching the scene for more than an hour


The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986 when Challenger, a Space Shuttle operated by NASA, consisting of the Challenger Orbiter, designated OV-099, an External Tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer, and two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), broke apart 73 seconds into its flight leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, United States at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC). Disintegration of the shuttle stack began 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing a flare (of pressurized hot gas from within the solid rocket motor) to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB attachment hardware and external fuel tank. Roughly 73 seconds into the launch, the SRB breach flare led to the separation of the right-hand SRB's aft attachment and the structural failure of the external tank, dumping the liquid hydrogen fuel load all at once and causing a massive explosion as this fuel was immediately ignited by various present flame sources. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter after this event caused loss of attitude control. The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation. The crew were probably killed by impact of their crew compartment with the ocean surface, although they might have suffered lethal injuries from the forces of the disintegration

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• CHALLENGER
• accident
• rocket
• Christa McAuliffe

[TachieBillano]

Had to stop the video in midstream--I couldn't bear to watch the faces of Christa's parents and the other astronauts' families again. I was 13 when it was aired live on CNN. For the first few horrible seconds, nobody knew what to make of the strange Y-shaped plume and the disappearance of the shuttle's form. (It took a while before we all realized...that was the after-burn of all our hearts ripped apart when those astronauts were torn from us.) RIP Challenger crew--we remember.

[xylina1111]

1/21/11 today is the 25th anniversary of Challenger the day that they died 1/21

[caslnor]

must've been scary to see... frightening...

[Laurel010203]

one question. why is in this video a picture of Sunny Williams?

[vw1973conv]

This was a terrible day for the world. Some of the crew did survive the fall into the ocean...until they hit. GOD BLESS THE CREW of the Challenger!!!!

[skiddy8619]

thanks for posting this that was a bad day for nasa and to all the families who lost there loved ones,

TO THE CHALLENGER CREW RIP