It’s been 30 years since the loss of the shuttle Challenger and its crew on Jan. 28, 1986, but its impact is still being felt – sometimes with sadness, sometimes with hope for the future.
Seven astronauts died when the Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff, due to the failure of an O-ring seal that led to a burn-through in one of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters. The result was an explosion that flung the orbiter in pieces into the Atlantic Ocean.
The investigation that followed found that the O-ring became brittle at low temperatures, and that the flight should not have launched on that chilly January morning. Investigators learned that “go fever” led mission managers to overrule the engineers who recommended a delay.
The mission’s commander, Dick Scobee, was born in Cle Elum, Wash. Challenger’s other astronauts were Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Greg Jarvis – and Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space.
The tragedy brought hard lessons for NASA, plus at least one hopeful development: the creation of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, with June Scobee Rodgers, the commander’s widow, as its founding director.
“The Challenger families agreed it was important for the world to remember how the crew lived and what they were passionate about, not how they died,” Scobee Rodgers said this week in a statement commemorating the anniversary. “I know Dick and the crew would be so proud.”
Today NASA conducted memorial services at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The space agency’s “Day of Remembrance” honors the Challenger crew as well as other fallen astronauts, including those who lost their lives in the Apollo 1 fire on Jan. 27, 1967, and the shuttle Columbia’s breakup on Feb. 1, 2003.
We put out the call for reflections on the anniversary, via email and phone interviews as well as GeekWire’s Facebook page. Here’s a sampling of the responses:
Joe Sutter, retired Boeing engineer and member of the Rogers Commission that investigated the Challenger disaster. Sutter is also known as the “Father of the 747”:
Sutter recalls that he “got in a little bit of trouble in the early days of the commission” when he suggested that every shuttle flight should go through an FAA-style review procedure before launch: “Sally Ride took me to task,” he said. “Later on, after the commission met, she came around and said, ‘Mr. Sutter, you were right.'”
Now he wonders whether the space effort is worth the cost: “When I look at how much money is spent putting people up 300 miles … if they could put that money into work programs, I think the world would be better off.”
Chuck Beames, president of Vulcan Aerospace:
“I was a third-class cadet at the Air Force Academy, racing back to the squadron to watch the liftoff on television. Everyone was riveted to the one television in the squadron, especially because on this particular launch the shuttle commander, Lt. Col. Dick Scobee, was the father of our fellow cadet. Before I was able to walk, my dad was an engineer on the Apollo program – and our family, living next to Cape Kennedy, has been space geeks ever since.
“Watching the shuttle explode that cold day in January day shook me to my core, and shattered the illusion of our technical invincibility. Later that same day, we were taught for the first time by our commanders and professors that with every great human endeavor, sacrifices must be made – sometimes the ultimate sacrifice. I’ve never forgotten that hard lesson as all of us that are working to usher in the next generation of space exploration for the world.”
Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, a teacher who became a NASA astronaut and flew on the shuttle Discovery in 2010. She retired from NASA in 2014 and now lives in the Seattle area:
“I was at school, in the fifth grade at Stansberry Elementary in Loveland, Colo., and I was rushing back from an errand or library to watch the launch with my classmates. I was stopped in the hall; a former teacher told me what happened. I think he was in shock, and he didn’t want us to be surprised when we entered our home classroom.
“When I went home that evening, I had a long talk with my mom about death. We talked about how the crew was doing what they wanted and living out their dreams. Less than two years earlier, I watched my grandmother die from colon cancer. It was the first time I really pieced together that death takes people at all points in life.
“Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan (and all of those who participated in the Teacher in Space Project) paved the way and inspired the selection of Educator Astronauts; in 2004 I would be a teacher hired as a full astronaut. I am thankful that we learn from mistakes, but that we do not let tragedy keep us from flying in space.”
Robert Oler, captain at Turkish Airlines:
“I was in [Saudi Arabia], Jeddah, getting ready for a night flight to Baghdad when we heard the news. just two months before I had been flying aircap for a shuttle launch when my boss had a conversation with his classmate who was at the time an astronaut. After that discussion, I was not surprised that the shuttle blew up. To this day NASA HSF [Human Space Flight] has no clue about safety and risk.”
Frank Catalano, strategist for digital technology in education (and GeekWire contributor):
“I was a candidate for the Journalist in Space program at the time, when I covered health and science news for KING-AM. Instead of continuing down that path, I wound up anchoring our coverage of the Challenger disaster. During a break, my wife – we had been planning our first child – called and asked me if I still wanted to go. Without hesitating, I said yes. She started to cry. It was the absolute wrong thing to say at the time (I was younger and more stupid), but I was reflexively saying what I absolutely felt then. I still feel that way now.”
Joel Davis, author of “Flyby: The Interplanetary Odyssey of Voyager 2”:
“I was at JPL that day, writing my book on the Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus, which had happened on the 24th. I was in a meeting with the imaging team as they got ready to discuss the latest findings, and the Challenger launch was on the TV monitor, a live feed from NASA TV. Good launch, it all looked fine, and then. … The moment of the explosion, someone in the room said, ‘That’s not right. Something’s happened.’ Followed by multiples of ‘Oh my God’ and ‘Oh shit.’ I remember running out of the room and down several flights of stairs, crying and saying something like ‘Oh crap’ over and over. I ran across the main plaza and into Von Karman Auditorium, where the rest of the press corps was waiting for the daily Voyager press conference. It was an awful, awful day.”
Doug King, president and CEO of the Museum of Flight. King served for five years as president of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education:
“Most people remember that day as a tragedy, and it certainly was. But what’s come out of it, and what I think is the real story of today, 30 years later, is the Challenger Learning Center. The families of the astronauts formed the organization themselves – with the help of an awful lot of people from around the country, and an awful lot of institutions that built Challenger Learning Centers and continue to operate them today.
“Here at the Museum of Flight, I went downstairs this morning and watched 30 fifth-graders rendezvous with Halley’s Comet. They had an incredible experience, not because they were remembering the Challenger flight, but because some great educators know how to get kids excited about the future.
“Several years ago, on the 25th anniversary, I heard June Scobee say something that I think is really applicable today, and that is, ‘The flight may have failed, but the mission has been a success.’ In 50 Challenger Learning Centers around the U.S. and Canada, in Japan and in England, kids are being excited and interested in the future because the Challenger astronauts took a risk, and because a lot of amazing educators continued onward when the astronauts couldn’t.”
The Museum of Flight commemorates the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia tragedies on Saturday with activities for Astronaut Remembrance Weekend, including a 2 p.m. presentation by NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador Ron Hobbs and Tony Gondola, the coordinator for the museum’s Challenger Learning Center. On Feb 6, NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson will be the guest speaker for the Michael P. Anderson Memorial Aerospace Program at the museum’s William M. Allen Theater.
