Explosion

Video images of the vehicle climbing away from the launch pad showed a flame jetting out of the booster where the smoke had been seconds earlier. The flame was like a blowtorch on the bot­tom of the external fuel tank and on one of the metal struts connecting the tank to the solid rocket booster.

Hydrogen started leaking from the tank, feeding the flame. The strut was weakened so much by the heat that it gave way, allowing the booster rocket to swing out of position and collide with the tank. The tank was torn apart, releasing a massive amount of liquid hydrogen and then liquid oxygen.

Just a fraction of a second later, Challenger disappeared in a huge fire­ball. The booster rockets separated from the rest of the vehicle and flew away on their own. They were triggered to self-destruct by a radio signal from the ground. Challenger broke up, and wreck­age rained down into the ocean. It was obvious that the astronauts had perished and there would be no survivors. In the weeks that followed, U. S. Navy divers recovered about a third of the space­craft, half of the solid rocket boosters, and half of the external fuel tank.

A presidential commission was set up to investigate and review the causes of the Challenger accident. The remaining three Space Shuttles (Columbia, Atlantis, and Discovery) were grounded for the next 2 years. Meanwhile, a new Space Shuttle, named Endeavour, was built to replace Challenger.

Challenger’s crew of seven included Christa McAuliffe. She was not a pro­fessional pilot, engineer, or scientist like the other astronauts. McAuliffe was a schoolteacher, and she was to be the first of a series of teachers to go into space as part of the Teacher in Space program. Students all over the world were to see her teach science from orbit. The program was suspend­ed after the accident until August 2007, when teacher Barbara Morgan (who had trained with McAuliffe) went into space on STS-118.

The other crew members who died on Challenger were:

• Commander: Francis R. Scobee.

• Pilot: Michael J. Smith.

• Mission Specialist: Judith A. Resnick.

• Mission Specialist: Ellison S. Onizuka.

• Mission Specialist: Ronald E. McNair.

• Payload Specialist: Gregory B. Jarvis.

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