Robbie wrote this report for school. I thought he did a great job, also I remember this day. I remember sitting in class watching this happen. Then I remember in our year end program singing a song about it.


Robert Larsen
The Challenger

3…2…1…the Challenger takes off in Florida at 11:38a.m. The Challenger had been delayed many times, but not on January 28, 1986, despite the weather conditions. NASA managers did not listen to the warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching that came with the low temperatures of that morning and they failed to report these concerns to their bosses. The cold weather caused o-rings to crack, this was not known before the launch. NASA managers also knew that contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs had a potentially fatal flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but they failed to deal with it correctly. Inside the three engines, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen mixed. If these two substances mix, they will explode.
Things seemed to be going perfect until black smoke suddenly came from the right SRB (solid rocket booster), it had failed at liftoff. Hot gasses came through the booster seals. Booster seals are also called o-rings. O-rings are made of rubber so the o-rings began to burn and wear away. The NASA officials did not notice the problem before takeoff. Seventy-three seconds into the flight, the Challenger broke apart as a result of the leak in one of the two solid rocket boosters that ignited the main fuel tank. The spacecraft exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:39a.m.
The explosion became one of the most significant events of the 1980’s. Billions of spectators, including school children all around the world watched live as the Challenger fell apart. The seven crew members did not survive the incident. The exact times of the deaths are unknown, several crew members are believed to have survived the initial breakup, but the shuttle had no escape system. They are believed to have been killed on impact with the oceans surface. The crew consisted of: Dick Scobee, the flight commander, the pilot, Michael J. Smith, three mission specialist; Ronald McNair, Judith Resnick and Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis was the Challengers payload specialist and Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project.


A Memorial to the Challengers crew stands in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The Challenger had taken its last flight. It was a sad day for our nation.