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KF5JRV > TODAY 28.01.19 16:22l 59 Lines 3077 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 30197_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in Histoy - Jan 28
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Sent: 190128/1219Z 30197@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger
lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her
way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space.
McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New
Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the
seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle
training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long
days as the Challenger‘s launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because
of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle
lifted off.
Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa’s
family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle broke up in a forking plume
of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on
live television. There were no survivors.
In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
unveiled the world’s first reusable manned spacecraft, the Enterprise.
Five years later, space flights of the shuttle began when Columbia
traveled into space on a 54-hour mission. Launched by two solid-rocket
boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered
into orbit around Earth. When the mission was completed, the shuttle
fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the
atmosphere, landed like a glider. Early shuttles took satellite
equipment into space and carried out various scientific experiments. The
Challenger disaster was the first major shuttle accident.
In the aftermath of the disaster, President Ronald Reagan appointed a
special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to
develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was
headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included former
astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The
investigation determined that the disaster was caused by the failure of
an “O-ringö seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic
O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at
launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive
loss. As a result, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than
two years as it redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.
In September 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the successful
launching of the Discovery. Since then, the space shuttle has carried
out numerous important missions, such as the repair and maintenance of
the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction of the International
Space Station.
On February 1, 2003, a second space-shuttle disaster rocked the United
States when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry of the Earth’s
atmosphere. All aboard were killed. Despite fears that the problems that
downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily addressed, space-shuttle
flights resumed on July 26, 2005, when Discovery was again put into
orbit.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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