I tally light from now
McNear pilot Mike followed by
subscription solid featuring face
listen on India and painless specialist
straight Jarvis big smiles today
confidently getting into the van they're
going to go to that pad and attempt a
second try
second line that can try it launched
today we'll take a few minutes for the
astronaut band to get to the pan
the orbiter and the first crew member
commander dick Scobee now I in the white
room taking off his jacket along with
mike smith who is the the pilot dick
Scobee became a military pilot and later
a test pilot the hard way the he
enlisted in the air force in 1957 and
was trained as a reciprocating engine
mechanic I however he went to night
school during the time he was down i had
Kelly Air Force Base and earn two years
of college credit which helped lead to
his selection as air for the Airman's
education and commissioning program he
graduated from the university of arizona
with a degree in aerospace engineering
received his commission in 1965 and his
wings in 1966 is completed a number of
assignments for the Air Force I
including becoming an Air Force test
pilot he was the pilot of the 41
submission which deployed the
long-duration exposure facility which is
still in orbit and captured and repaired
the solar maximum emission satellite and
placed in orbit where it is functioning
better than ever
Mike Smith putting on his egress harness
to they're going to be going very fast
today's to get out of the cold and into
the cabin he was one of the mike smith
is one of the few rookies on board this
flight is a graduate of the u.s. Naval
Academy in Annapolis and received his
naval aviator wings in 1969 he had a
two-year tour of duty in Vietnam and is
a graduate of the Navy test pilot school
where he also served as an instructor
for 18 months
altogether he's flown about 28 different
types of civilian and military aircraft
logging over 4,300 hours
he's taken on a number of tasks while
he's been in the astronaut corps he
served as commander in the shuttle
avionics integration laboratory in
Houston which test all of the
instrumentation and computers and
software for the shuttle
he also was deputy chief of aircraft
operations and technical assistant to
the director of flight operations George
Abby he also served in the astronaut
office development and test group after
the scrub yesterday the crew went back
to the crew quarters where they relax
for a while and were able to have dinner
with their spouses in the crew quarters
dining room but they had to be in bed by
about seven o'clock so they could be up
and on their way this morning mike smith
shaking hands with the closeout crew
which is assisted him in in getting
ready they take a look at his feet and
then wipe those out to make sure he's
not carrying any debris end of the cabin
with him
this is shuttle launch control at one
hour 58 minutes 57 seconds and counting
and dr. Judy Resnik who was mission
specialist for the st 41d mission on her
first light is in the white room now
preparing to put on her egress harness
and get ready for her entrance into the
orbiter on our first flight three
satellites were deployed and she was
responsible for operating the remote
manipulator arm on that particular
flight
she is also responsible for operating
the arm before placing the Spartan
Hallie spacecraft in orbit and then
recovering it later in flight that will
be put in orbit over the side of on the
second day the orbiter will move about
five miles away and allow it to function
and look at the Halley's Comet for 40
hours and then go back and pick it up
and bring it back to earth for
undergraduate degree was from Carnegie
Mellon University and she earned her PhD
in electrical engineering from the
University of Maryland
prior to joining nasa in 1978 as a
mission specialist Judy Resnik work is
the senior systems engineering product
development for the xerox corporation in
California she's a native of akron ohio
and also a classical pianist and enjoys
flying and bicycling in the spare time
Ellison Onizuka also in the white room
actually everybody's going to be there
shortly
I as they get ready of the teacher
observer of Christa McAuliffe has been
handed an apple by the closeout crew
Ellison Onizuka Nell getting his degress
harness on uh the native of Hawaii is a
graduate of our kona hawaii in high
school and are in both the bachelor and
master of science degree in aerospace
engineering
from the University of Colorado after
receiving his Commission in the Air
Force he served as a flight test
engineer and participated in the flight
programs and system safety engineering
for a wide variety of aircraft he
graduated from the Air Force test pilot
school and then served on the staff
onitsuka is one of the astronauts known
as the Cape Crusaders who were assigned
to KSC for a period of time of several
launches and work with the orbiter test
and check out chains and the launch
support crews on the astronaut support
person on board are funny Billy Bob
Carter is also one of the Cape Crusaders
at the present time
go ahead of you
calculus functionalism complete moron
Roger
ok
ok family wanted to rest between the
orbiter the firing room here at Kennedy
Space Center and Houston booster engine
gimbal now underway
t-minus 15 seconds
876 we have main engine start four three
two one and liftoff of space shuttle
mission analyst for the tower control
program confirmed challenger now heading
downrange
engines beginning throttling down now
has ninety-four percent normal coddles
most of the point and four percent will
travel down to a 65-percent shortly
engines at sixty-five percent three
engines of running normally three good
fuel cells trigger maybe use a lot of
the 2257 feet per second half to 4 . 3
nautical miles downrange distance three
nautical mouth kitchens traveling up 3
inches now 204 person challenger go at
throttle up to 15 seconds velocity 2,900
feet per second altitude $OPERAND
nautical miles downrange distance 7r
Crump
ok
controllers here looking very carefully
at the situation obviously a major
malfunction
we have no download
we have a report from the flight
dynamics officer that the vehicle has
exploded by director confirms that we
are looking at checking with the
recovery forces to the what can be done
at this point contingency procedures are
in effect
will report more as we have information
available again repeat we have a report
related to through the pipe dynamics
officer at the vehicle has exploded
we are now looking at all the
contingency operations and awaiting word
from any recovery of forces in the
downrange field
flight of the space shuttle challenger
on mission 51 l the 25th flight of the
space shuttle program began at 1130am
eastern standard time on january 28 1986
it ended 73 seconds later in a
structural breakup of the external tank
and orbiter in which the seven
crewmembers perished the solid rocket
boosters continued in flight and were
destroyed by the Range Safety Officer
110 seconds after launch
the delivery and assembly of 51 l launch
vehicle components began months prior to
launch the solid rocket booster segments
were transported by rail to the Kennedy
Space Center the SRBs were inspected and
partially assembled at the rotation
processing and storage facility the
segments were then moved to the Vehicle
Assembly Building or VA be where they
were stacked on the mobile launch
platform
the external tank arrived at KSC by
barge and was moved into the VA be where
it was checked out and made it to the
stack solid rocket boosters
after orbiter checkout Challenger was
rolled into the vab and mated with the
assembled external tank and SRBs the sts
51 l vehicle was transported from the VA
be to the launch pad on december $MONTH
twenty-second 1985 @ a crawler speed of
approximately one mile per hour the
journey takes about six hours
the launch was rescheduled several times
resulting in the final countdown on
january 28 1986 the weather was forecast
to be clear and cold with temperatures
dropping into the low 20s overnight the
feeling of the external tank began at
125 am I said accumulated on the launch
pad during the night several water
systems were open slightly and allowed
to flow into drains the drains froze and
caused overflows high wind gusts spread
the water over large areas and ice
formed the air temperature at launch was
36 degrees Fahrenheit this was 15
degrees colder than any previous launch
at t minus seven minutes and 30 seconds
the ground want sequencer began
retracting the crew access arm the arm
can be put back in place within 15 to 20
seconds if an emergency arises and the
crew must evacuate the pad at t-minus
three minutes and 15 seconds gimbal
checks of the orbiter main engines were
performed all three engines move in a
pre-programmed pattern to verify ass and
flight control the gimbal sequence ends
with the engines and our start positions
at t-minus two minutes and 55 seconds
external tank liquid oxygen
pressurization began and main engine
purging was completed at t-minus two
minutes and 50 seconds retraction of the
gaseous oxygen vent hood began the
ground want sequence are verified its
full retraction at t-minus thirty seven
seconds sound suppression water was
started at t-minus sixteen seconds at
t-minus eight seconds hydrogen igniters
were turned on to burn off any free
hydrogen 6.6 seconds before watch
challengers liquid-fueled main engines
were ignited in sequence and run up to
full thrust
thrust from the main engines bends the
shuttle stack when it returned to
vertical the solid rocket boosters
ignited at t0 to hold down bolts were
explosively released after the initial
pre-released why emotion structural
forces on the assembly are dissipated
through vibration at a rate of three
cycles per second during the first few
seconds of flight roll maneuver was
initiated at 7.7 24 seconds the maneuver
was completed at 21.1 24 seconds
normal model most of the flight 204
percent will travel and do with the main
engines were throttled back to
sixty-five percent at 35.3 79 seconds
for about 16 seconds in order to
alleviate loads during maximum dynamic
pressure velocity 2257 peak per second
speed 4.3 nautical miles downrange the
engines were then throttled up to 104 %
@ 51.9 19 seconds corporation down der
go at throttle up during the flight
telemetry data gave no indication of
problems finding second quantity 2,900
feet per second altitude $OPERAND
nautical miles downrange distance 700
club
the solid rocket boosters continued in
flight and were destroyed by the Range
Safety Officer 110 seconds after launch
data from nearly 200 cameras were
analyzed during the investigation the
following sequence of events is based on
the evaluation of film video and
telemetry data this graphic indicates
viewing angles for three cameras in the
vicinity of the launch site the first
few shown is from camera e63 at the
lower right of the chart at . six seven
eight seconds into the flight a strong
puff of gray smoke can be seen spurting
from the vicinity of the aft field joint
on the right solid rocket booster the
vaporized material streaming from the
joint indicates there was not complete
ceiling action within the joint this
second view is from camera e60 the smoke
can be seen between the right SRB and
the external tank and initially moves in
the upward direction the angle between
this view and e63 is approximately 100
degrees
with these 60 and e63 side-by-side it is
clear that when smoked his first visible
to camera e60 it is not yet visible to
e63 . two seconds later it becomes
visible to e63 and is seen in multiple
lobes or puffs reaching maximum
visibility at about 1.9 seconds a third
higher resolution camera D 67 was
located east of the launchpad d 67
recorded this view of the smoke at
approximately the same time of maximum
development smoke appears to the right
side of the SRB only while normal water
condensation papers appear to the left
this plan shows that none of the cameras
directly view the surface of the right
SRB in the shaded region of the graphic
analysis of film from several pad
cameras indicated that the smoke came
from between 270 and 310 degrees on the
circumference of the aft field joint as
indicated on these pre-flight photos the
smoke emerged from just above the strut
between the SRB and ET at a point along
the longitudinal axis near the aft field
joint
the multiple smoke puffs occurred at a
rate of about four times per second
approximating the frequency of the
structural load Dynamix and result in
joint flexing this greatly exaggerated
computer animation depicts the flexing
of the SRB joint this flexing increase
the gap between the tang and clevis at
the location of two rubber o-ring seals
last evidence of smoke above the
after-tax ring appears at 2.7 33 seconds
the last indication of smoke dispersing
below the f dome appears at 3.37 five
seconds film records of the assembly of
the solid rocket booster were reviewed
to determine any evidence of cause for
the smoke photographs taken just prior
to meeting of the booster segments at
the after field joint show the o-rings
installed in the grease clevis grooves a
subtle variation was detected but
through computer enhancement was
determined to be a shadow caused by
irregularities in the grease no evidence
of oring defects was observed in any of
the stacking photography the facility
gaseous hydrogen vent arm was not
captured after attraction at launch film
analysis however showed that it did not
rebound and contact the vehicle or
contribute to the accident post-launch
inspection of the hold-down posts
revealed that the kick spring assemblies
on four of the posts were missing
detailed analysis determined that the
Assembly's could not have become
detached prior to t + 850 milliseconds
and we're not a contributing factor to
the smoke observed at liftoff the next
significant event was the development of
the SRB burn through plume
camera e2 07 located about six miles
north of the launchpad shows the growth
of this plume the first evidence of
flame appeared on the right solid rocket
booster at 58.7 88 seconds
this occurred as the main engines had
been throttled up to 100 4% thrust and
the SRBs were increasing thrust camry
203 was located west of the launch site
and gives an after view the exposure was
set for the booster nozzle plumes this
graphic illustrates the location of the
flare the flare was located near the
after field joint approximately 300
degrees circumferentially which is
consistent with the location of the
smoke emissions at liftoff within half a
second the flame had grown into a
continuous and well-defined plume at
about the same time telemetry show to
divergence and chamber pressures between
the right and left SRBs pressure and the
right SRB chamber was lower as a result
of the growing leaked the plume is seen
here in pinching directly onto the
surface of the external tank and the
lower apt strut at 60 . 248 seconds at
about sixty two seconds the control
system elements began to respond to the
forces caused by the plume as recorded
on e 207 Andy 20 for the first visual
indication that the anomalous plume
penetrated the external tank was seen at
64.6 six seconds as an abrupt change in
the shape and color of the plume this is
an indication of hydrogen leaking from
the external tank
at 64 points 7 05 seconds a bright
sustained low developed between the
orbiter and the external tank slight
changes in the hydrogen tank pressure to
limit read data confirmed the leaked 2.2
seconds later at 66 . eight seconds when
the LH to tank pressurization system
could no longer maintain its normal
repressurization rate at 72.6 seconds
the LH to tank pressure could no longer
be maintained indicating that the leak
path had significantly increased and was
growing rapidly at 72 . two seconds the
guidance system showed that right SRB
motion diverge from the orbiter and left
SRB indicating that the lower eat ESRB
strut was severed or pulled loose during
this timeframe exaggerated stirring
commands and control system responses
registered in telemetry data at
approximately seventy three seconds both
liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen
pressure to the main engines showed a
significant drop this was followed at 73
part 124 seconds by the appearance of a
circumferential white pattern around the
ETA after region suggesting lh2 tank
structural failure 13 milliseconds later
at 73.1 37 seconds vapor was observed at
the inner tank indicative of the liquid
oxygen tank failing this can be
attributed to have normal loads induced
by either the right SRB rotation at the
forward attached . or the propulsive
force is created by the LH to tank after
bulkhead failure probably both within
milliseconds liquid oxygen was observed
streaming along the external tank at
73.1 91 seconds a flash was observed
between the key and orbiter that was
immediately followed by the start of
total vehicle break up at 73.2 13
seconds during the next 100 milliseconds
additional flashes occurred in the SRB
forward attached area as the ET broke up
released fluids vaporized rapidly
producing an expanding cloud of gases
papers and cryogenic fluid with embedded
debris and localized combustion of mixed
gases no shockwave or other evidence of
a violent explosion was detected in the
imagery illumination from a combination
of SRB plume radiance reflected sunlight
and peripheral burning of gases gives
the cloud the appearance of a fireball
by 73.6 seconds the main engines were in
automatic shutdown mode as a result of
reduced propellant pressures the last
telemetry from Challenger was received
73.6 18 seconds after launch the actual
vehicle breakup was essentially obscured
from view by the vapor cloud which
abruptly enveloped the vehicle hundreds
of fragments were noted exiting the ET
cloud those identified included the
shuttle main engines the left-wing crew
cabin and both SRBs approximately one
second after initial breakup film showed
the front segment of the orbiter
emerging from the cloud the nose crew
cabin and a portion of the cargo bay
make up the orbiter in this view
nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer from the
forward reaction control system provided
a distinctive orange brown color to the
cloud by 74.5 78 seconds a yellow cloud
or flash was visible near the orbiter
knows segment this is believed to be
caused by burning mono methyl hydrazine
from the forward RCS the flash reaction
from the RCS propellant abated revealing
separation of the nose section from the
crew cabin less than a quarter of a
second later the crew cabin was noted to
be severed from the cargo bay igniting a
propellant discharge continue to be
observed from the forward RCS
a camera south of the launchpad recorded
a wider array of debris exiting the
vapor cloud the initial emergence of the
crew cabin from this perspective was at
75.2 37 seconds the initial path of the
crew cabin from the vapor cloud carried
across the path of an adjacent contrail
clearly revealing its truncated form and
attitude the left-wing became visible at
78.5 31 seconds the main engines and
crew cabin are also identifiable after
10 seconds the crew cabin was seen again
with the front end and top of the cabin
visible as the subject to move further
away and dropped lower on the horizon
the quality of the image for visual
analysis deteriorated rapidly long-range
tracking cameras followed the SRBs
through Range Safety destruct at
approximately seventy five point eight
seconds the right SRB was seen exiting
the cloud camera e2o seven shows the
right SRB after the breakup and the
joints are clearly visible except for
the aft field joint this confirmed the
location of the plume along the
longitudinal axis of the SRB the
separated nose cap and deployed drogue
parachute are identified at
approximately 70 6.4 seconds
the shock wave from the detonation of
the linear shaped charge on the right
SRB can be seen clearly simultaneously
the left SRB was destroyed at
approximately thirty-seven seconds
challenger had encountered the first of
several expected high altitude wind
shear conditions which lasted until
about 64 seconds
these wind shears are best illustrated
by the effect on the booster exhaust
trails the effect of wind shear was
immediately sensed and countered by the
guidance navigation and control system
wind reconstructions were aided by
comparing predicted exhaust trail shapes
with acquired photography the
reconstructed winds were used in
trajectory and flight loads analyses
which verified that the loads were
within limits several flashes in the SME
plumes were observed during the flight
as similar flashes have been seen on
several previous flights they are
considered not to have contributed to
the accident the visible condensation
that appears in this frame is created by
shock waves which develop as the vehicle
passes through the speed of sound
a large-scale search effort was
initiated to recover the space shuttle
debris 22 ships six underwater search
vessels and 33 aircraft participated in
the operation the pieces recovered
initially were those found floating on
the surface the submarine fleet was used
to locate and inspect underwater debris
objects identified as being important to
the investigation were retrieved fifty
percent of the entire vehicle was
recovered in the effort the ocean search
area was located at the edge of the Gulf
Stream at depths up to 1,200 feet
approximately ninety three thousand
square miles of ocean were searched the
recovered hardware was brought to the
logistics facility where reconstruction
efforts helped to verify the
investigation team's findings as well as
to analyze the structural breakup
mechanics of the orbiter ET and SRBs
inside the logistics facility parts were
arranged on the floor according to their
location on the vehicle forty-five
percent of the orbiter itself was
recovered the debris confirmed that the
orbiter and it's payloads did not
contribute to the cause of the accident
and that the orbiter breakup was a
result of aerodynamic effects rather
than explosive effects shown here are
parts of the orbiter forward fuselage
structure which surrounds the crew cabin
extensive heating and erosion was
detected on the right aft section of the
orbiter the paint was scorched and black
and on the right side of the AFT
fuselage thermal distress was apparent
on the white rotor speed brake while the
left showed little effect thermal
effects were also seen on the elavon
the aft left side of the orbiter showed
no apparent signs of heat damage the
remaining recovered parts of the orbiter
showed no evidence of fire or explosion
from within the vehicle all three main
engines were recovered and help to
verify that they did not contribute to
the cause of the accident the external
tank was similarly reconstructed
25-percent of the liquid hydrogen tank
eighty percent of the inner tank and
five percent of the liquid oxygen tank
was recovered most of the external
hardware was also recovered
the nose cap sustained very little
damage in general the recovered pieces
were quite large the spray-on foam
insulation exhibited varying degrees of
thermal effects from extreme charring to
practically no effect the external tank
range safety destruct explosive charges
housed in this cable tray were recovered
undetonated eliminating them as a
possible factor in external tank break
up the inner tank region showed signs of
buckling in the four-and-a-half
direction this would be consistent with
the impulsive thrust that resulted from
the sudden loss of liquid hydrogen from
the aft section of the tank this sharing
failure of the forward attachment
fitting with the right SRB was caused by
the Boosters rotation after the apt
straight area failed
the stiffener stringers on the
right-hand side of the inner tank show
evidence of contact which match marks on
the forward assembly of the right SRB a
section of the Ring frame and a section
of the f dome from the lower strut
attachment area was recovered in one
piece
the lower strut attachment fitting had
been pulled away the effects of the
anomalous SRB plume can be seen on the
external tank excluding an area which
was shielded by the strut and attachment
fitting approximately fifty percent of
solid rocket booster hardware was
recovered an ordinance storage facility
was used to house the motor case pieces
as some contained unburned propellant
marks seen on the right SRB frustum
match the contactor is shown previously
on the ETA enter tank stringers
the size and location of the burn
through as indicated by the recovered
SRB debris were illustrated on an
assembled booster the aft center section
of the joint shows a large hole centered
at the 307 degrees circumferential
position the irregular hole is roughly
rectangular and is about 27 x 15 inches
the steel case material showed evidence
of hot gas erosion caused by combustion
products flowing through the opening the
aft section of the right SRB showed a
whole approximately 33 x 21 inches the
burn surface extended into the apt
attached strut region the exterior
surface of the f case featured a large
heat affected area the shape and
location of this heat spot indicates an
impingement from the escaping gases
there was a small burn through in the
case wall which appeared to have
penetrated from the outside in this was
due to the impingement of hot gases from
the anomalous plume the hole in the
solid rocket booster segments was the
result of the joint leakage on the
right-hand SRB which was determined to
be the cause of the accident the
Presidential Commission concluded that
because of the Challenger accident was
the failure of the pressure seal in the
aft field joint of the right solid
rocket motor the failure was due to a
faulty design rendering the seal
unacceptably sensitive to a number of
factors those factors include the
effects of temperature physical
dimensions the character of materials
the effects of reuse and processing and
the reaction of the joint to dynamic
loading more detailed analyses are
contained in volume three of the report
of the Presidential Commission on the
space shuttle Challenger accident
