‘Roger, go at throttle up’: The 35th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

Today’s post comes from Thomas Richardson, an archives technician at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center on an abnormally cold morning. Temperatures dipped below freezing, evidenced by the formation of icicles on the launch pad. Weather conditions had already delayed the shuttle launch once, but the launch would go as scheduled that day.

Challenger’s crew—Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe—entered the crew cabin as spectators gathered from the viewing sections to watch the liftoff. 

The crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-51-L. In the back row from left to right: Ellison S. Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik. In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair. (Image courtesy of Johnson Space Center, NASA)

This mission was unique from previous ones—the Teacher in Space Project established under the Reagan administration sought to expand scientific knowledge through teachers experiencing spaceflight. Christa McAuliffe from Concord, New Hampshire, was chosen as its first participant after a lengthy search. In addition to the crew’s required duties, McAuliffe planned to teach two science lessons while in orbit. Hundreds of thousands of Americans tuned in to watch this special space mission. McAuliffe’s students watched from the auditorium at Concord High School. 

At 11:39 a.m. EST, barely 73 seconds after liftoff, the shuttle, fuel tank, and solid rocket boosters (SRBs) disintegrated in an explosive plume of white smoke 40,000 feet in the atmosphere. Shuttle debris rained down, and remnants of the SRBs flew unguided. Spectators from around the world would never forget the harrowing scene. 

For months following the breakup, the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and NASA’s emergency response crews combed the surrounding land and sea for the crew. That same evening, President Ronald Reagan postponed his scheduled State of the Union Address and instead addressed the public from the Oval Office, speaking about the accident. He spoke about what had happened, lamented the loss of the astronauts, and praised their courage. He closed by saying:  

“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.”’

People everywhere asked what could have caused this terrible catastrophe?

President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office study watches a television replay of the Space Shuttle “Challenger” explosion with Don Regan, Pat Buchanan, Al Kingon, and Edward Djerejian, 1/28/1986. (National Archives Identifier 75854573)

On February 1, 1986, a proposal was submitted to President Reagan to establish a Presidential commission to investigate the circumstances and causes of the Challenger disaster. Distinguished leaders in scientific fields, technical experts, and bureaucracy management were sought after to fill the commission and review NASA’s reports and safety protocols. 

Two days later, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12546 creating the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Nicknamed the Rogers Commission after chairman William P. Rogers (former Secretary of State), the members looked at NASA’s management structure, examined recovered debris, reviewed telemetric data, and investigated links between NASA and various civilian contractors, including Morton-Thiokol, manufacturer of the rocket boosters. 

The commission found that the O-rings sealing the joints in the boosters failed as a result of the cold weather. The pressurized gases caused flames to eject and compromise the fuel tank. Commission member and notable physicist Richard Feynman demonstrated this structural flaw during a press conference showing that with long enough exposure to cold temperatures, O-ring resilience was damaged. 

In addition to technical and engineering faults, the Rogers Commission also reviewed the managerial and decision making process inside NASA. Morton-Thiokol engineers reiterated their O-ring concerns to NASA and pushed to have the flight cancelled to properly address the issue. However, these concerns didn’t move up through the ranks of the safety personnel, and senior NASA personnel deemed the O-ring as an acceptable flight risk. This decision ultimately had fatal consequences. 

Richard Feynman concluded in his part of the investigation that there were serious deficiencies in NASA’s safety management and a lack of scientific understanding on the part of engineering. The commission ultimately submitted nine recommendations to President Reagan, Congress, and NASA on how to avoid future disasters, including independent oversight, shuttle restructuring, communication improvements, and new abort procedures. 

President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan and families of the “Challenger” victims at the memorial service for the Space Shuttle crew in Houston, Texas, 1/31/1986. (National Archives Identifier 75854579)

While the Rogers Commission continued to research and interview key figures about the accident, the remains of the Challenger crew were retrieved after weeks of searching and transferred to the families on April 29, 1986. 

Resnik, Scobee, and Smith were interred at Arlington National Cemetery, Onizuka in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Jarvis’s ashes were released into the Pacific Ocean, and Ronald McNair and Christa McAuliffe were buried in their respective hometowns. On May 20, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial was dedicated at Arlington, recognizing their sacrifice and dedication to space exploration. 

On the 35th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, we still remember the loss of the crew and their courage in pursuing space exploration and the advancement of human understanding of the universe. 

Visit NASA’s history website for a complete copy of the Rogers Commission Report.

9 thoughts on “‘Roger, go at throttle up’: The 35th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

  1. My heart still aches when I think about this gut-wrenching event.

    NASA blew it big time by allowing the launch to take place when one considers the freezing weather that was present at that time and knew what the danger was when considering the launch.

    God bless the families that were heartbroken after this event, and may this wretched type of decision never be made again!

  2. There is a great overview of the informational and communications difficulties that were a significant factor in the disaster. Look for Edward Tufte and his book Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. It is a valuable study in how to convey important information, applicable to many situations in life.

  3. A few months ago I struck up a friendship with a woman who was an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center. We talked about that day, along with Columbia. So great to get first hand accounts of the workers.

  4. As I held my 3-month-old baby, I watched on live television as did so many others. Shocked and horrifed by what I saw, I could not stop crying. Here I am a senior citizen 35 years later, and it still brings tears to my eyes.

  5. I was in college and can remember this like it was just yesterday. Truly a sad event. I have watched many documentaries on this. I will reserve my comments out of respect for the crew!

  6. I wasn’t around when it happened but I saw the video of what happened and realized that the family was affected by this greatly and I give them my gratitude for what they had to go through. So I’m am truly for your loss.

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