February 9, 2014

Houston, We have a Problem - 2 Space Disasters that America Won't Forget

 Houston, We Have A Problem
2 American Space Disasters We Won't Forget



THE CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE DISASTER

The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster was unique in many ways. First because it was the first widely publicized and known space mission because the mission included a teacher by the name of Christa McAuliffe who was set to teach from space- and had a large child fan base. The explosion of the Challenger Space shuttle on January 28th, 1986 was later determined to be caused by a failure of 'O-Ring' seals, likely because of cold weather.This disaster was also unique because all of America saw it, over and over again, on every TV channel for quite some time after. The Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, which killed all 7 of its crew members, ground the space program for a full two years because of speculation of oversight by NASA. The 7 astronauts that died that day were: Francis R. Scobee, Commander, Michael J. Smith, Pilot, Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist, Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist, Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist, Greg Jarvis, Payload Specialist, and Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist/Teacher.




THE COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE DISASTER

The Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster that took place on February 1st, 2003 also killed all of it 7 crew members: Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla,David M. Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon. This time however the disaster did not occur upon take off, but the opposite- upon reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. This disaster caused by debris the shuttle had shed also caused the same speculations that its 17 year predecessor raised- Did NASA make the right choice? Both disasters were caused by problems NASA had known about and did not change. This disaster also caused the retirement of the Space Shuttle program by George W. Bush in 2004.



They will never be forgotten.

xoxo disaster girl

P.F.S. Links for the Curious
 


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