Challenger spaceship disaster. The death of the Challenger

On February 1, 2003, the American space shuttle Columbia completely disintegrated in the air during landing after 16 days of flight. Seven astronauts were killed in the incident, which was broadcast live on television. We remember how it happened and what other space disasters led to the death of people.

Burning wreckage of the Columbia. Photo: CBS News

Last shuttle flight

Columbia's problems began already on takeoff - January 16, 2003. Approximately 82 seconds after launch, a piece of insulation separated from the left fairing of the shuttle's attachment to the external tank, which hit the carbon fiber panel of the Columbia's left wing with force. Later it was calculated that such a blow could leave behind a hole with a diameter of 15-25 cm.

This is what a punctured carbon fiber reinforced plastic panel on the Columbia's wing might have looked like. The result was obtained as a result of full-scale tests that took place after the tragedy.

On February 1, 2003, at 08:15:30 (North American Eastern Time), Columbia began its descent to Earth. At 08.44 the shuttle entered the dense layers of the atmosphere, it was then that the leading edge of the left wing began to heat up much more than it had in previous shuttle flights.

At 08.50.53, a 10-minute period began, during which the ship's hull was subjected to the heaviest thermal loads, and already at 08.53.46, debris began to fall off the wing.

At 08.59.32, the last, broken message from the ship’s commander was sent from the ship: “Roger, uh, bu...”. This was the last connection with Columbia.

By 09.00.18, according to amateur video footage, the shuttle was already falling apart into many fragments. At the same time, footage of the destruction of the shuttle in live showed one of the TV channels in Houston (Texas). And they immediately scattered around the world. This is what the story about the tragedy looked like on a Russian TV channel:

Footage of the shuttle's destruction was also captured by an AH-64 Apache helicopter:

This was the last of 28 Columbia flights the shuttle had made since April 12, 1981. But not the only tragic incident in space.

"Soyuz-1"

The launch of a new series of manned spacecraft "Soyuz" ended in the world's first space tragedy. The crew consisted of one person, Vladimir Komarov. Interestingly, his backup on this mission was Yuri Gagarin.

Soyuz 1 was not properly prepared for flight. Before the start of the mission, engineers conducted three unmanned launches to test the device. They all ended unsuccessfully. About two hundred flaws were noted in the Soyuz-1 design, which migrated to the final model.

However, the leadership of the USSR insisted on the speedy launch of the ship. The Americans conducted ten manned flights from March 1965 to November 1966, and also prepared for lunar mission. At the same time, Soviet spacecraft have not been launched into space for two years. Thus, despite a lot of shortcomings and the lack of successful tests, Komarov flew on Soyuz-1.

After entering orbit, one of the two did not open solar panels. Management on the ground decided to terminate the flight early and ordered Komarov to return to Earth. At an altitude of seven kilometers, the Soyuz-1 main parachute did not work. The spare came out when there was one and a half kilometers left to the surface of the planet. But due to tangled lines, the dome did not open, and the spacecraft crashed into the ground at a speed of 50 m/s.

The impact, after which Komarov died instantly, set the containers containing hydrogen peroxide on fire. Soyuz 1 almost completely burned down. This is the first time in history that an astronaut has died.

"Soyuz-11"

Four years later and several successful missions of the Soyuz series vehicles, another accident occurred in which the entire crew died - Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev.

Soyuz 11 launched in 1971. The ship was supposed to dock with the Salyut-1 station and conduct scientific experiments. Having reached the station, the astronauts saw heavy smoke in the air. The crew spent 24 hours in the aircraft, waiting for the ventilation system they had repaired to clear the air.

Further work proceeded as normal until a fire started on the eleventh day of the mission. It was decided to terminate the mission ahead of schedule. After closing the hatch on Soyuz-11, the light warning that the hatch was not closed continued to light. The mission control center said that the sensor itself was faulty. The astronauts began to prepare for their descent to Earth.

Soon contact with the crew was lost. The Soyuz-11 landing took place automatically: the parachute opened, the landing was successful, but the cosmonauts did not communicate. The meeting group of rescuers opened the hatch and realized that there was no one to save - the crew was dead.

Photo: Rukosmos

It was found that the compromised cabin seal due to a faulty ventilation valve led to a sharp decrease in pressure. The crew noticed the threat, but did not have enough time to fix the problem, and they were also hampered by the fog that had entered the cabin. The astronauts died from decompression.

Shuttle Challenger

The shuttles are the first reusable spacecraft. The Americans used them for flights for exactly thirty years, from 1981 to 2011. Five spacecraft were built: Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavor, Challenger and Columbia. All are named in memory of sailing ships, on which the discoverers walked. Unfortunately, only three out of five shuttles are celebrated in old age in space museums.

Challenger was preparing for its tenth flight in 1986. Among the crew was Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher who won a trip to space (Soviet teachers could only win a trip to a sanatorium).

Unlike Soviet spacecraft launches, which took place only in the presence of MCC workers and party leadership, the Challenger launch was broadcast live, and there were many spectators at the site at Cape Canaveral.

The shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight. The reason is the destruction of the sealing ring, which led to the burning of a hole in the wall of the accelerator, and from it, in turn, the jet stream fell directly onto one of the fuel tanks.

The flying cockpit hit the water at a speed of 333 km/h. Experts found that some of the astronauts survived the Challenger explosion, but they had no chance of saving themselves from a collision with water.

After the accident, the shuttle program was curtailed for three years.

Virgin Galactic

Spaceship British company Virgin Galactic, designed for tourist flights on a suborbital trajectory, in the United States during a test flight on October 31, 2014.

There were two pilots on board the ship. One of them died, the second survived. The accident occurred in the US state of California.

It is believed that in 1986, during the US launch of the space shuttle Challenger, the shuttle exploded, killing the entire crew.

The Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the Challenger spacecraft exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members. The shuttle crashed at 11:39 EST (16:39 UTC, 19:39 MSK) over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of central Florida, USA.
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Destruction aircraft was caused by damage to the o-ring of the right solid propellant booster during launch. Damage to the ring caused the accelerator seams to rupture, after which hot high-pressure gases burst out of the solid propellant engine, penetrated the adjacent accelerator structures and reached the external fuel tank. This led to the destruction of the tail mount of the right solid rocket booster, damage and explosion of the external fuel tank. The destruction of the main fuel tank released all the liquid hydrogen and oxygen it contained. The fuel elements, combining in the air, formed a fiery flash hundreds of meters away.

At this moment, the damaged ship was still climbing, but soon its flight became unstable. As a result of a combination of damage and the asymmetrical action of aerodynamic loads, the tail section of the ship and the engine compartment were torn off. The wings were separated, and then the cabin with the crew was separated from the cargo compartment. The wreckage of the shuttle fell into the Atlantic Ocean.

Later, as a result of a lengthy search and rescue operation, many fragments of the ship, including the crew compartment, were raised from the ocean floor. Although the exact time of the crew's death is unknown, it turned out that some of its members managed to survive the main explosion. However, the shuttle was not equipped with an emergency escape system, and the astronauts did not survive the collision of the compartment with the surface of the ocean.

Challenger shuttle disaster 1986

But is it?

The tragedy of the space shuttle Challenger occurred in 1986 live, before the eyes of the whole world. Interestingly, it was in this launch that the United States was 200% confident, and it was decided to broadcast the launch live to the whole world. Books and lengthy articles in serious magazines and newspapers are dedicated to this event. And suddenly it turned out that the astronomers from the Challenger were alive and living quietly in the USA, and some did not even change their documents and live under their own names and surnames.

Michael J. Smith did not change his name or passport details. Works as a teacher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It is curious that Michael Jay Smith became a professor of industrial engineering and psychology in 1986, and serves as such to this day.

Richard Scobee also did not bother with documents, and lives under his own name. He works as the chief of one serious company (Cows in Trees ltd). By the way, his son was responsible for intercepting allegedly terrorist planes that rammed shopping centers in NYC.

The other two living astronauts are not as brave as their aforementioned counterparts, so they pose as twin brothers. Quite unexpectedly, two astronauts turned out to have twin brothers. Personally, in my entire life, I have never encountered such a thing that in one small group of people, 2 people met with twin brothers. According to statistics, the probability of having twins is 1/250. It's easy to guess that the probability of having twins twice is 1/62500 for a team of two people, and 1/17857 for a Shuttle team of 7 people. In short, this is fantastic, dear ones.

Modern photos of the Challenger astronauts. They are alive

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RONALD MC NAIR impersonates Carl Mc Nair, ELLISON ONIZUKA impersonates Claude Onizuka.

The Challenger women are also alive. Both teach law, at Yale and Syracuse universities, respectively. No traces of the 7th astronaut have yet been found. At the time of the flight he was 42 years old, now he would be 71, it is quite possible that he died a natural death, or he was simply killed so as not to talk too much. Or he was the only one who was actually on board the Shuttle.

The whole world saw that the shuttle exploded, fell into pieces, its fragments fell into the ocean. No one could survive. From this there is a very simple conclusion - there were no survivors on the shuttle. It's all Hollywood. The USA shows the start of an empty tin can, and then broadcasts a picture from the studio.

Some conspiracy theorists, by the way, believe that the United States blew up the Challenger themselves, on purpose. Why did they need this - there are many versions, for example, the shuttle program turned out to be much less effective than the one used by Russia and the United States on this moment. But admitting this is a catastrophic loss of face. And a staged “disaster” broadcast to the whole world (what other launch was so widely covered?) is a very suitable reason to curtail an unprofitable program and switch to a more promising and economical one at the moment with one-time launches.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that the Challenger crew was not on board at the time of the explosion. And the US hid this from everyone.

N.B. This is from the same series as “the Americans were on the Moon”... A country of deceptions, fakes and Hollywood...

On January 28, 1986, at 11:38 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from platform 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The entire crew of seven died 73 seconds later in the explosion. Today, 25 years after this tragedy, America honors the memory of the brave crew members who gave their lives for the dream of getting into space. Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire, was selected by NASA in a nationwide competition to fly into space. January 28, 2011 is the gloomy anniversary of the terrible tragedy.

1. Crew members of the space shuttle Challenger. From left to right: Allison Onizuka, Mike Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Dick Scobee, Greg Jarvis, Ron McNair and Judith Resnick. (NASA/1986)

2. Christa McAuliffe at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. An entire generation, including McAuliffe's students, has grown up since she and six astronauts died on Jan. 28, 1986—a quarter-century ago. The former students wanted to make sure that people who were not yet born when their beloved teacher died could learn about her and her dream of going into space. (AP/1985)

3. Christa McAuliffe at the Lions Club parade in front of New Hampshire Town Hall with her daughter Carolyn and son Scott. McAuliffe was a teacher who taught sociology at Concord High School. NASA chose her to fly into space. (The Boston Globe/Janet Knott/1985)

4. McAuliffe, the first American teacher in space, conducts his volunteer orchestra, called the Never Band, on the lawn of City Hall. The school held a "Christa McAuluff Day" and she performed the anthem "Stars and Stripes Forever" with the orchestra. (The Boston Globe/Janet Knott/1985)

5. Christa McAuliffe jogging with friends in Concord, New Hampshire. (AP/Jim Cole)

6. Christa McAuliffe celebrates the news of space flight with friends the day after her visit to the White House. (The Concord Monitor/Suzanne Kreiter)

7. McAuliffe aboard a test aircraft on January 2, 1986, during landing practice, a day after arriving at NASA from Houston.

8. McAuliffe prepares for a test flight in the T-38 fighter in September 1985. This was part of her preparation for her 1986 space flight.

9. McAuliffe aboard a T-38 fighter jet over Galveston Bay during testing before the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. On background You can see part of Galveston Island and Houston on the left. McAuluff presented the Teacher in Space project aboard the shuttle. (AP/1986)

10. Christa McAuliffe controls the robotic arms aboard the Space Shuttle simulator at the Johnson Space Center in July 1985. (UPI)

11. McAuliffe during a zero-gravity training flight in October 1985. (UPI)

12. McAuliffe signs autographs before a ceremony announcing she was chosen as the first teacher to fly into space. City officials presented her with an engraved plate and a city flag. (AP/Suzanne Kreiter/1985)

13. McAuliffe near the space shuttle Challenger on platform 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in October 1985. (AP/Jim Neihouse)

14. Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan (right) during a training session in 1986. (NASA)

15. McAuliffe is at the van that will take her to the launch platform. (The Boston Globe/Janet Knott)

16. The crew of the space shuttle Challenger heads to the launch platform at the Kennedy Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the foreground are Commander Francis Scobee, Specialist Judith Resnick, Specialist Ronald McNair, Instrument Bay Specialist Gregory Jarvis, Specialist Allison Onizuka, Teacher Christa McAuliffe, and Pilot Michael Smith. (AP/Steve Helber)

18. Classmates of Christa McAuliffe's son rejoice at the launch of the shuttle. Their joy soon turned to horror - the entire shuttle crew was killed in the explosion 73 seconds later. (AP/Jim Cole)

19. Sequential photographs of the Challenger shuttle disaster. An ignition in the solid rocket booster led to an explosion that killed all seven crew members. (HO/AFP/Getty Images)

20. Shuttle explosion 73 seconds after takeoff. This photo became a symbol of the tragedy of the entire American nation. (Bruce Weaver/AP)

21. McAuliffe's family had just heard a warning from NASA over the loudspeaker that a tragedy had occurred. (The Boston Globe/Janet Knott/1986)

22. Teachers and students of the school where McAuliffe worked were shocked by what was happening: before their eyes, debris from the shuttle fell from the sky. ( The New York Times/Keith Meyers)

23. NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw reports the terrible news: the Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members. (NBC News)

24. US President Ronald Reagan, surrounded by officials, watches a replay of the shuttle explosion on TV in the White House. From left to right: White House Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speaks, Assistant to the President Dennis Thomas, Special Assistant Jim Coons, President Reagan, White House Communications Director Patrick Buchanan and Chief of Staff Donald Regan. (AP/Craig Fuji)

25. Shopper David Kimball and store employees Lynn Beck and Lisa Olson after watching a memorial service for the astronauts who died during the Challenger launch. On the screen are relatives of one of the astronauts. (AP/Charles Krupa/1986)

26. A huge piece of the Challenger shuttle on the beach in Florida. It washed ashore on December 17, 1996. (AP/Malcolm Denemark)

27. A cross and wreath depicting the shuttle on the shore with a Coast Guard cutter searching for the wreckage of the shuttle in the background, in Cape Canaveral. (AP/Jim Neihouse/1986)

28. Sailors from the USS Preserver pull part of the inertial upper stage rocket body out of the sea after the Challenger explosion. The stage was supposed to lift satellite tracking data to a higher orbit. The debris was found at a depth of 21 meters, 32 kilometers northeast of the space center. (AP)

29. Members of the Presidential Commission to Investigate the Challenger Explosion walk past the shuttle's solid rocket booster and external tank in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Center. (AP)

30. Shipwreck on the huge grate at the Kennedy Center in March 1986. NASA hoped to piece together the remains of the ship. This photo was part of the evidence for the presidential commission. (NASA)

31. Color aides carry the remains of Christa McAuliffe from the plane to the hearse at Dover Air Force Base. (The Boston Globe/Janet Knott/1986)

32. Headstone at the grave of Christa McAuliffe. She earned the title of "first teacher in space" posthumously, but for many she remained a beloved, energetic teacher who devoted herself entirely to education. (AP/Jim Cole)

33. Students walk past a display in memory of Christa McAuliffe in February 2003 at an exhibition about the history of the space shuttle. McAuliffe and the six other Challenger crew members are remembered for their courage and desire to explore space. (AP/Mike Roemer)

34. A wreath honors the seven astronauts who died on the space shuttle Challenger in Memorial Grove during the annual memorial ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on January 27, 2011. (AP/Houston Chronicle/Smiley N. Pool)

via bigpicture.ru

Everyone knows that space flights involve a high risk to life. Another confirmation of this is the disaster of the space shuttle Columbia. But, unlike other similar incidents, there are especially many mysterious understatements associated with this tragic incident. Let's still figure out how the Columbia shuttle accident happened.

History of the Shuttle Columbia

Before covering the final flight of the space shuttle Columbia, let's take a quick look at its history. This will allow us to learn more nuances about the tragedy.
The reusable shuttle Columbia began to be built as part of the NASA program in 1975. The work was completed in 1979.

It is noteworthy that Columbia was the first vehicle of the Space Shuttle program. This program provided for using the new kind transport - space shuttles, the shape of which was very similar to the design of an airplane. Unlike earlier generations of spacecraft, the shuttles could make not one, but many flights into space. Before this, NASA scientists launched vehicles of a similar class as part of the Enterprise program, flying within the boundaries of the earth’s atmosphere.

The shuttle Columbia was named after the ship that explored the shores of British Columbia at the end of the 18th century.

The launch of the shuttle took place in 1981. This was the first flight made by an American spacecraft in the last 6 years. In the NASA code classification it was assigned the number STS-1.

Each subsequent flight within the Space Shuttle program was assigned the following number. The last flight of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, the 28th in a row, had the serial number STS-107 in NASA numbering.

The design of the shuttle Columbia

As mentioned above, the Columbia shuttle, however, like all spaceships of this type, had the shape of an airplane.

Columbia differed from later shuttles in that it was heavier and lacked a docking module. Thus, the device could not dock with either the Mir station or with

The shuttle was launched into space using a solid rocket booster. In addition to the spacecraft itself and the two-rocket booster, the design included a very large fuel tank filled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen. The separation of the rocket booster occurs at an altitude of 45 km, and the fuel tank at an altitude of 113 km.

The orbital rocket plane had a length of slightly more than 37 m, a wingspan of about 24 m, and a mass without payload of 68.5 tons.

Mission STS-107

Expedition STS-107 in 2003 was the 113th flight of the American space program Space Shuttle and the 28th flight of the space shuttle Columbia.

The mission of this expedition was a complex of various observations of the Earth, as well as microgravity experiments (Extended Duration Orbiter and Freestar). The shuttle Columbia (2003) had the Spacehab research module (SPACEHAB), which was an additional payload. The module served so that during flights in space, astronauts could carry out various studies in it.

Crew

Now let's find out what the crew of STS-107 was like. It consisted of seven people: five men and two women. Six of the crew members were US citizens, one was from Israel.

American astronaut Richard Husband was the crew commander. At the time of the flight he was 45 years old. This was Husband's second flight. His first expedition into space occurred in 1999 as part of flight STS-96 on the Discovery shuttle.

His compatriot, forty-one-year-old William McCool, served as co-pilot. He had extensive service in the US Navy. McCool was the youngest participant in the flight.

American astronaut David Brown was a flight specialist. The 46-year-old cosmonaut was the oldest among his compatriots participating in the flight. David Brown had medical education, and he acted as a doctor. Like the previous astronaut, this was David's first flight into space.

Forty-two-year-old Indian-American Kalpana Chawla already had experience in space flight. She participated in the STS-87 expedition in 1997, on the same shuttle Columbia on which she was to die in 2003. By the way, the first Leonid Kadenyuk took part in the same expedition. Thus, Chawla became the first woman of Indian origin (though not an Indian citizen) to fly in space. On the STS-107 mission, she held the position of flight engineer.

For forty-three-year-old American Michael Philip Anderson, this was also his second flight into space. He took part in the STS-89 expedition in 1998 on the shuttle Endeavor along with Russian Salizhan Sharipov. Anderson had an engineering degree and was a pilot in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. On the STS-107 expedition, he was the payload commander, that is, he was responsible for research work.

Laurel Clark was the second of two women who took part in the STS-107 expedition. She was an American civilian and was 40 years old. She was a physician by training, but had never participated in space expeditions before. During the expedition she served as a zoology specialist.

Israeli citizen Ilan Ramon was a foreign specialist specially invited by NASA. At the time of the flight he was 48 years old, that is, he was the oldest member of the crew. Ramon had a background in electronics and computer engineering and was also a pilot in the Israeli Air Force. This was his first space flight, in which he received the position of payload specialist, that is, together with Michael Anderson he took part in scientific research. In addition, thanks to this flight, Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli astronaut.

Most of the crew members had children.

Start

Expedition STS-107 launched into space on January 16, 2003 from Florida, US. The launch pad number is 39-A.

During takeoff, a piece of the shuttle's insulating coating came off. He struck the tiles of the thermal protective shell of the Columbia's left wing. But NASA experts did not consider this circumstance a serious incident that could somehow change the flight plan or put the lives of crew members at risk. But later this episode was considered as one of the versions of the causes of the disaster.

Flight

During the flight, the team as a whole completed all the assigned tasks, which included more than 80 different scientific experiments. The expedition lasted 15 days and 22 hours. This is the standard flight time for shuttle class ships. During this time, Columbia made 255 orbits around the Earth with a total length of about 1,600,000 km. The flight took place around the Earth in an orbit at an altitude of 307 km.

On February 1, 2003, after all tasks were completed, the shuttle landing procedure began at the scheduled time.

Catastrophe

How did the Columbia shuttle disaster happen?

At 8:10 a.m. Eastern Time (MCC) allows the Columbia shuttle crew to begin the spacecraft landing procedure. Five minutes later, the engines of the orbital maneuvering system are launched, which was supposed to ensure the descent. Another half hour later, Columbia entered the dense layers of the Earth's atmosphere.

At 8:48 a.m., the left wing temperature sensor observes an abnormal increase in thermal readings for similar descents. But for some reason the data was not transferred to the control center or displayed on the on-board computer screens. The only way we now know about rising temperatures is the black box.

At 8:53 a.m., debris begins to fall off the shuttle. And only a minute later the MCC sensors showed abnormal change parameters. From time to time, observers notice bright flashes of light around Columbia.

At 8:58 a.m., an insulating tile fell off the ship. At 8:59, the last communication session with the shuttle commander is terminated. At 9:00 the Columbia falls apart in the sky. At 09:05, debris from the shuttle fell to the ground in the US state of Texas.

This is a short list of events that culminated in the disaster of the space shuttle Columbia. In this tragedy, none of the crew members had a chance to survive.

After the disaster

After the crash, when in general terms it was already possible to assess the scale of what had happened, on February 1, 2003, at 11:00 a.m., all flags were lowered at the Space Center. Two and a half hours later, an official announcement of the accident followed. The tragedy of the space shuttle Columbia prompted US President George W. Bush to address the nation at 1:05 p.m. that same day. He expressed condolences to the families of the victims and also paid tribute to the heroism of the crew members.

Immediately after the crash, the search for the remains of the ship began. Officially, more than 500 people took part in them. The search was complicated by the fact that parts of the shuttle were scattered over a fairly large area, covering the states of Texas, Louisiana, California, and Arizona. In total, about 12,000 pieces of debris were found. Among other things, a device was discovered that replaces the black box.

The remains of the bodies of all crew members were found.

Investigation of causes and conclusions

Initially, several causes of the disaster were considered, but the possibility of a terrorist attack was immediately ruled out, since it was technically almost impossible to carry it out. Although at one time there was even a version spread on the Internet that the shuttle crash was due to the introduction of a computer virus into the shuttle system. But this version did not stand up to criticism.

During the investigation, the investigation abandoned three versions that were previously included in the main ones. According to one of them, the crash occurred as a result of the “aging” of the shuttle design. According to another version, the cause of the accident was the shuttle’s too steep and abrupt entry into the atmosphere. According to the third, the accident occurred due to a failure of the braking system. But, as mentioned above, over time, for various reasons, these assumptions were abandoned.

There are two main versions left. According to one of them, the crash occurred due to damage to the thermal insulation coating, which occurred during the launch of the shuttle. According to the second, damage to the thermal coating occurred in space due to a meteorite.

The final conclusion, which was read out in August 2003, stated that the disaster occurred due to the destruction of the shuttle's left wing by hot gases that penetrated into its cavity due to damage to the thermal insulation.

Consequences

The main consequences of the tragedy were that NASA employees paid more attention to the safety issues of spacecraft and their crews. This thesis was outlined in particular detail at the very end of 2008 in a special NASA report.

The Columbia disaster, the Challenger disaster in 1986, and numerous problems during subsequent flights forced NASA to cancel the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Memory

At the same time, the memory of the heroic astronauts who were members of the shuttle crew lives on to this day.

One of the Swiss rock bands released a composition in 2005 that was dedicated to this disaster. And two years earlier, a member of the popular British group Deep Purple recorded a dedication composition, the rights to which he transferred to the relatives of the deceased astronauts.

Also, one of the supercomputers used by NASA, Columbia, was named after the shuttle. One of the peaks of Mount Kit Carson in Colorado was named Columbia Point.

The meaning of the disaster

The Columbia shuttle disaster became a significant phenomenon in American society at one time. It showed the unreliability of the shuttles and the entire flight system that NASA used at that time.

It was this disaster that became one of the reasons due to which the question of closing the Space Shuttle program was raised.

On January 28, 1986, the American space shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff. 7 astronauts died.

The Space Shuttle program was the most difficult for NASA. The first launch of Columbia was already postponed three times in order to achieve flawless operation of the systems. The launch of the first reusable spacecraft in manned mode took place on April 12, 1981. The two astronauts worked on board Columbia for two days and six hours.

Astronaut Sally Ride took part in Challenger's first flight in the summer of 1983 as a flight engineer. She specialized in working with a mechanical manipulator - a gigantic hand - for launching and capturing artificial satellites from orbit. Together with flight engineer John Fabian, using a 15-meter electronic-mechanical manipulator equipped with two television cameras, they launched a communications satellite into orbit and then returned it to the cargo bay.

The Challenger reusable spacecraft is a combination of a manned orbital stage (space plane), two identical solid rocket boosters (SRB) and a fuel tank with liquid fuel. Rocket boosters are designed for acceleration in the initial part of the trajectory; their operating time is a little more than two minutes. At an altitude of approximately 40-50 km, they separate and then splash down by parachute into the Atlantic Ocean. An outboard fuel tank shaped like a giant cigar supplies liquid oxygen and hydrogen to the main propulsion system located at the aft end of the orbital stage. Once empty, it separates and burns in the dense layers of the atmosphere. The most complex part of the complex is the orbital stage, which looks like an airplane with a delta wing. Each ship in the series is capable of flying from 100 to 500 times. The moment of landing was considered the most dangerous part of the flight. The speed of the ship upon entering the atmosphere is several times greater than the speed of the fighter. Landing must be completed the first time.

The Challenger was striking in its size: its mass at the start was 2000 tons, of which 1700 tons were fuel.

The launch of shuttle spacecraft, as well as the implementation of the entire United States space program, is provided by NASA. The decision about this was made back in the 50s. But almost the lion's share of space shuttle flights was financed by the American Air Force. Initially, they saw the shuttles as an ideal means for launching military satellites into orbit. But later, due to frequent malfunctions in the shuttle systems, the Air Force command again decided to launch some especially expensive satellites using rockets and thus keep in reserve a spare means of launching various objects into orbit.

The US space program was extremely ambitious in 1985, and in 1986 it became even more intense. NASA never gives consent to a launch unless it is absolutely certain that everything is thoroughly prepared for the launch. At the same time, the Aeronautics Administration was required to adhere to the officially announced flight schedule at all costs. But it was never possible to withstand it, a lag began to emerge, and for this NASA management was sharply criticized both from the pages of the press and in Congress.

Under increasing pressure from above, NASA leaders were forced to demand that all divisions speed up work as quickly as possible while ensuring maximum flight safety. But NASA is a very conservative organization; they do not tolerate even the slightest deviation from the instructions. Until 1986, there were 55 launches of American manned spacecraft - and not a single accident in the air. In 1967, the spacecraft caught fire on the launch pad, killing three astronauts. Twenty-four shuttle flights were successful. Everyone was waiting for the twenty-fifth.

What was the purpose of the next Challenger flight? The plan was to launch and then, after meeting Halley's comet, take on board an artificial satellite again. It was also planned to launch a communications satellite into orbit. Particular attention was focused on teacher Christa McAuliffe. Two years before the start, a competition was announced in the United States on the initiative of President Ronald Reagan, which received eleven thousand applications. The “Teacher in Space” program dealt with mechanics, physics, chemistry, and space technology. It was supposed to consider under conditions of weightlessness the action of Newton's laws, simple mechanisms, the passage of the processes of hydroponics, foaming, and chromatography. Christa McAuliffe was preparing to teach two lessons that the nonprofit broadcaster PBS was going to broadcast to hundreds of schools on the fourth day of the flight.

The Challenger crew consisted of seven people: Francis Dick Scobee, 46, the ship's commander, an Air Force major from Auburn, Washington; Michael Smith, 40, co-pilot, served in Navy United States, place of residence - Morehead City, North Carolina; Ronald McNair, 35, Ph.D., Lake City, South Carolina; Allison Onizuka, 39, Air Force Major, Kealakekua, Hawaii; Christa McAuliffe, 37, teacher, Concord, NH; Gregory Jarvis, 41, satellite engineer, Detroit, Michigan; Judith Resnick, 36, Ph.D., Akron, Ohio.

The Challenger space shuttle mission, codenamed STS-51-L, was repeatedly postponed. The first time this happened was on December 23, 1985. The launch was rescheduled for January 22, but complications with a similar type of spacecraft, Columbia, forced the flight to be delayed another day. On the eve of this date, a new one is set - January 25. Then, due to unfavorable weather conditions, the launch is scheduled for January 26. However, experts again assess the weather as unsuitable for the launch - there was an unexpectedly sharp cold snap. January 27 is the first day when the launch was recognized as realistically possible and pre-launch tests of the ship's systems were carried out. After midnight, fueling of the outboard tank began.

At 7:56 a.m., the astronauts take their places aboard the Challenger. But at 9.10 the pre-launch countdown is unexpectedly interrupted: one of the handles of the side hatch is jammed, and it is not possible to close it tightly. While the malfunction was being fixed, in the area of ​​the runway intended for emergency landing, the wind became so strong that at 12.35 it was decided to postpone the launch to the next day.

The weather forecast predicted cloudless skies and temperatures below zero by nightfall. At half past one in the morning, a special ice removal team went to check the condition of the surface of the spacecraft installed on the launch pad. At 3:00 a.m., the team returned to base and warned that three hours before launch it was necessary to recheck the degree of icing on the Challenger.

At 7.32, due to low clouds and expected rain, the time for the crew to board the shuttle was delayed by an hour. This “extra” hour allowed the astronauts to have breakfast slowly and with all the amenities. At 8.03, the astronauts boarded the minibus. At 8.36 we took seats on board the Challenger. The launch was scheduled for 9.38, however, after yielding to the de-ice team's demands, flight directors were forced to delay it by another two hours.

During the forced delay, Judith Resnick, the second female astronaut in US history, gave a short interview. Despite the fact that the crew consisted of seven astronauts, Judith emphasized that there were six of them, which means that she bears a sixth of the responsibility for the success of the entire space expedition. Professional Resnick pointedly refused to recognize Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who was simply lucky, as her equal. Of course, Judith spent six years preparing for her first flight.

On January 28, 1986, at 11.38.00.010, Challenger finally lifted off. Among those watching the launch were students from Christa McAuliffe's class. The rest of the students at the Concord school where she taught watched the start on television. And at Cape Canaveral, among other guests are her father, mother, husband, lawyer Steve McAuliffe, and their two children - nine-year-old Scott and six-year-old Caroline.

The flight seemed to be going well in all respects. At the 57th second, the control center reported: the engines are operating at full load, all systems are functioning satisfactorily.

The last words spoken from the Challenger and recorded on magnetic tape belonged to the ship's commander, Francis Dick Scobie: “Roger, go at throttle up,” which means something like this: “Everything is in order, we are going at full speed.”

No emergency signals were received from the flight deck; The first signs of the catastrophe were noted not by instruments, but by television cameras, although the control and measuring equipment installed on board the spacecraft was regularly sending electronic impulses to the Earth until the very last moment. 73.618 seconds after launch, the trajectories of numerous debris falling into the sea were clearly visible on the radar screen, and the NASA employee on duty stated: “The ship exploded.”

What the people who observed the launch did not see and the instruments did not record became obvious when the films shot by photo machines were developed and the video recordings were analyzed using computers in super slow motion.

0.678 seconds after launch, a cloud of gray smoke appeared in the area of ​​the lower junction of the right solid fuel accelerator (SFA) sections. The accelerator consists of eleven basic sections; smoke appeared where the Challenger engine lies almost close to its body.

In the interval between 0.836 and 2.5 seconds, eight wisps of smoke are clearly visible, taking on an increasingly darker hue.

2.733 seconds after liftoff, the jets disappear: by this point, the spacecraft is reaching such a speed that it breaks away from its smoke plume.

Flight time 3.375 seconds. Behind the Challenger, at some distance, gray wisps of smoke are still visible; According to experts, its black-gray color and thickness may indicate that the insulating material is burning at the junction of the accelerator sections, where two so-called ring seals are located.

58,788. In the place where smoke came out of the accelerator, a flame appears.

59.262. From this moment on, the fire is visible quite clearly. At the same time, computers are celebrating for the first time different strength thrust of the right and left accelerators. The thrust force of the right one is less: burning gas flows out of it.

64.60. The color of the flame changes as the hydrogen contained in the huge outboard fuel tank, to which both the two boosters and the Challenger itself are attached, begins to leak. Inside the tank is divided in two by a thick partition; on one side there is liquefied hydrogen, on the other - liquefied oxygen; together they form the combustible mixture that powers the Challenger engine.

72.20. The lower mount connecting the right solid rocket booster to the drop tank breaks. The accelerator begins to rotate around the upper mount. At the same time, liquid hydrogen continues to leak through the hole in the tank body; that part of it that still remains in the tank goes into gaseous state and with increasing force presses on the internal partition. Turning around the upper mount, the right accelerator rocket strikes with its tip into the wall of the fuel tank, breaks through it and now allows oxygen to escape, as evidenced by a white cloud. This happens 73.137 seconds after the start. At an altitude of 13,800 m, the Challenger turns into a flaming torch, racing at about twice the speed of sound. Five tenths of a second later it falls apart.

The explosion occurred as the Challenger passed through the zone of maximum aerodynamic pressure. At this time, the ship experiences very large overloads. The commander of the fifth expedition under the Space Shuttle program said that at that moment it seemed to him as if the ship was about to fall apart. Therefore, when passing through this zone, engines should under no circumstances be operated at full power.

The disaster occurred at the moment when the ship's commander, Dick Scobee, turned on maximum speed. Once, in a conversation with a reporter, he said: “This ship will definitely explode someday.” Dick Scobee, a test pilot, then served in Vietnam, where he took part in many operations and received several awards. The structure of the ship is extremely complex, he said, and at the same time it is literally filled with explosive substances; take at least solid fuel rockets alone, capable of giving the ship a speed of 17 thousand miles per hour; and there is also an overhead tank containing several hundred thousand pounds of highly explosive liquefied gases. It is enough for some insignificant system to fail for this entire colossus to shatter into pieces. It happens in aviation that out of many equally reliable aircraft, one suddenly suffers an accident and crashes.

At the same time, Dick Scobie emphasized that, even if this happens, the disaster should not become an obstacle to the further implementation of the space program. And flights, of course, will continue, although it will certainly take some time before they are resumed.

Leo Krupp, a former Rockwell test pilot and expert on space shuttles, when asked whether the astronauts could have escaped, replied: “You know, all these events developed so quickly that they probably wouldn’t have noticed anything.” made it in time. In general, if, for example, the ship deviates from given trajectory, then the head of the flight control center group for trajectory control immediately sends a signal to the ship about this and the corresponding indicator lights up on the instrument panel in the cockpit. The ship's commander has a few seconds to turn on the emergency release system of the shuttle from the external fuel tank and booster rockets. To do this, just move one lever to the lower position and press the button. If the commander had done this today, the Challenger would have remained intact. But before the commander does this, to avoid any misunderstandings, he must wait for the alarm signal to be confirmed by the head of the flight safety team. However, as far as I know, in in this case a critical situation arose so quickly that the head of the security group simply did not have time to realize anything and make a decision..."

President Ronald Reagan and his top staff were in the Oval Office preparing to meet with network correspondents and editors when Vice President Bush and National Security Adviser Poindexter entered. It was they who informed the president about what had happened. The meeting was immediately interrupted, and everyone went into the president’s office, where there is a TV. Reagan, alarmed and upset, eagerly awaited new information. A few hours later, he tried to console the saddened country with a heartfelt speech. Addressing America's schoolchildren, the president said: “I understand that it is very difficult to realize that such bitter things sometimes happen. But this is all part of the process of exploration and expanding the horizons of humanity."

The Americans were shocked. Behind last quarter century, US scientists and astronauts made 55 space flights, and their successful return to Earth was taken for granted. It began to seem to many that in America almost every young man, after training for several months, could go into space.

The Challenger tragedy was suffered especially hard in Concord. After all, there, in the school auditorium, McAuliffe’s colleagues and students who knew her well gathered in front of the TV. Oh, how they expected her performance, how they hoped that she would glorify their town throughout America! When the tragic news of the loss of the Challenger spread, all thirty thousand residents of Concord were plunged into mourning.

Soviet radio broadcast condolences to the American people. Moscow announced that two craters on Venus would be named after the two women who died on the spacecraft - McAuliffe and Reznik.

At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II asked thousands of people gathered to pray for the dead astronauts - in his soul the tragedy caused a feeling of deep sadness.

Mourning was declared in the USA. The lights went out in New York tall skyscrapers. On the Florida coast, twenty-two thousand people held burning torches. In memory of the fallen astronauts in the capital Olympic Games In 1984, the Olympic flame was lit again in Los Angeles.

And at Cape Canaveral, teams from the US Coast Guard and NASA searched for the wreckage of the Challenger. They started work only an hour after the explosion, because the fragments kept falling. The search area covered about 6 thousand square meters. miles of the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite the enormous force of the explosion, search parties found large fragments of the Challenger scattered on the ocean floor.

Perhaps the most dramatic thing was that the bow of the Challenger with its crew turned out to be undamaged - it simply fell down into the sea, and was destroyed only upon impact with the surface of the water. The wreckage of the cabin was found on the seabed only a few months later, at a depth of 27 m. The remains of the crew were removed from the water and identified within a few weeks.

Four days later, on Friday, America said goodbye to the brave seven. Relatives of the victims, congressmen and about six thousand NASA employees gathered in the Houston area. President Reagan gave a speech.

On February 6, a commission to investigate the disaster was sworn in, chaired by former Secretary of State William Rogers. Among the thirteen members of the commission are General Chuck Eager, the pioneer of supersonic flight; Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon; Sally Ride, the first female astronaut of the United States.

A special commission began intensively questioning, in closed sessions, senior NASA officials and engineers from Morton Thiokol, the supplier of the solid-fuel launch vehicles believed to have led to the tragedy.

The materials of the commission investigating the disaster describe the principle of connecting sections of a solid fuel accelerator rocket. The edge of the edge of one of the sections forms a clamp into which the pin of the other section fits tightly. A similar principle is used when gluing a model, where the protruding part of one part fits into the groove of another. The peculiarity of this connection is that the groove and pin are located in a circle, and the function of glue is performed by a special insulating sealant. To ensure greater safety, two ring seals made of dense rubber are installed at the junctions of the sections; If gaps form, the seals move and close them. Among the fragments of the accelerator rocket raised from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, there were two components damaged to a critical degree. Between clamp No. 131 and a piece of pin No. 712 fitted to it, there is a hole, burned equally both from the outside and from the inside. This fragment is part of the right accelerator, charred to the lower intersection joint. Isolation has failed dangerous place- where the accelerator is attached to the fuel tank. Having lost the lower fastening, the accelerator turned around the upper one and, like a spear, pierced the fuel tank.

It has been established experimentally: when starting a solid fuel accelerator, a gap is formed between the clamp and the pin, depending on the thrust force of the accelerator - 0.17-0.29 inches (0.42-0.73 cm). This gap must be closed with an elastic O-ring. The latter, however, functions differently at normal and low temperatures. Experiments carried out by order of the Rogers Commission showed that at a temperature of plus 25 degrees Celsius, seals take their original shape several times faster than at a temperature of zero.

Twenty-one times shuttle spacecraft took off when air temperatures were above 17 degrees Celsius, yet on four occasions one of the O-rings burned out. Three times the launch was carried out at temperatures below 17 degrees, and two times one of the seals was completely destroyed, and in one case the second, safety seal was seriously damaged. But in such cold weather as was experienced before the flight of STS-51-L, shuttle spacecraft have never launched. At the time of Challenger's launch, the air temperature was only plus 2 degrees Celsius; on the shadow side of the right solid fuel accelerator (where the insulation later failed), the outer temperature of the steel cladding did not exceed minus 3 degrees.

The decision to launch the Challenger was wrong - this was the conclusion reached by the commission investigating the causes of the disaster. The documents say: those who made this decision are unfamiliar with the peculiarities of the functioning of the O-rings; They do not know that the seal manufacturer’s instructions do not recommend starting at an air temperature below plus 11 degrees; They also did not know that representatives of the Rockwell International Corporation (which developed the shuttle spacecraft system) paid attention in advance to the possible dangerous consequences of icing of certain parts of the Challenger before launch. Those who knew all this did not decide anything, or rather, they considered that these issues were not significant enough and were too private in nature to report them to their superiors.

The first document rejecting the principle of connecting sections of solid propellant booster rockets was dated October 21, 1977. Since then, twenty-two memos have been written regarding the shortcomings inherent in O-rings and sealants. The last date is October 9, 1985. The notes circulated mainly throughout the workshops and departments of the manufacturing company, some even ended up at the NASA space center in Alabama, but not a single one ever reached the top of the management pyramid.

On January 27, 1986, the day before the Challenger launch, one of the engineers of the Thiokol concern, which produces solid propellant rockets, namely a specialist in insulating materials, draws the attention of his superiors to the fact that, according to meteorologists, the air temperature in Florida is 11 hours will drop below zero - launching a spacecraft in such conditions is extremely dangerous. The concern's leaders contact NASA officials and hold a lengthy telephone meeting with them. Engineers protest against the launch scheduled for this morning and present their arguments, but NASA declares the discussion inappropriate, since there is no actual evidence that the O-rings will certainly fail in the cold. As a result, one of the representatives of the J. Marshall Space Center in Alabama exclaims indignantly: “What should we do - wait until the temperature rises to eleven degrees? What if this happens no earlier than April?!” The vice president of the Thiokol concern asks for a five-minute delay to consult with employees. However, he calls again only two hours later. His engineers now believe that if the first O-ring fails, the second one is likely to work and provide sufficient safety. The concern gives the go-ahead for the launch, and a facsimile copy of the relevant document is immediately transmitted via photo telegraph.

What happened at the Thiokol concern during these two hours?

At a quarter to nine in the evening on January 27, specialists from the concern that produces solid fuel rockets are still resolutely protesting against the risky launch of the Challenger. However, by eleven they are in writing They assure that they do not see anything dangerous. Having interrupted the telephone meeting, the vice-president of the concern, Gerald Mason, first listens to the opinions of his subordinates, and then invites them to leave the office, saying that in this case, not so much an engineering solution as a business one is required. He asks the chief engineer, Robert Lund, to stay and sternly punishes him: “Take off your engineer’s hat and put on your businessman’s top hat for a little while.”

The government commission examined more than six thousand documents published in the form of four-volume case materials. The summary of Rogers' report is as follows: “The Commission found that the administration of the Thiokol concern changed its position and, at the insistence of the Marshall Space Center in Alabama, agreed to carry out the STS-51-L flight. This was contrary to the opinion of the concern’s engineers and was done solely with the goal of pleasing a large customer.”

Conducting a public hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, Senator Ernest Holdings said of the disaster: "It appears today that it could have been avoided." He would later bring charges against NASA, which "apparently took political decision and hastened to carry out the launch, despite strong objections.”

The forced timeout in the shuttle launch lasted two and a half years, which experts estimate as the most difficult in the history of American astronautics. In general, the entire Space Shuttle program was revised. While the investigation was underway, the ship's systems were being refined and numerous checks of the operation of components and systems were underway. One and a half billion dollars were spent on modifying the shuttle. According to engineers, the new design required a fourfold increase in the amount of work compared to the base model. NASA tried to present Discovery to the public as if it were completely new ship. Engineers made 120 changes to the design of the orbital ship and 100 to its advanced computer hardware. The main attention was paid to those very dangerous joints. At the joints, the layer of thermal insulation was increased, an additional ring seal and even heaters were installed to avoid possible overcooling of the seal.

On September 29, 1988, after the successful Discovery flight, America breathed a sigh of relief: the country returned to space flights with astronauts on board. For the first time, the ship's crew of five was dressed in orange rescue suits and equipped with individual parachutes and flotation devices in case of an accident during landing. However, it is still impossible to save the crew while the shuttle is being launched into orbit. In order to create such a rescue system, it would be necessary to significantly change the design of the ship, which is not economically viable.