the challenger

             Tuesday, January 28, 1986 is a day that will live on forever in infamy. This was the day that the Challenger, a NASA space shuttle, tragically exploded. The explosion left many people asking themselves, "What went wrong," and "What made the Challenger blow-up?" NASA conducted a report to find out just that. They concluded that it was many factors, these factors being the failed O-rings, the cold weather, and the leaky joint.(McGowen,57)
             Surprisingly, many people don't know what exactly happened to the Challenger. Ironically there were several launch delays for the Challenger. NASA disregarded the delays and ordered the lift off anyway.(Oberg, 725) Seventy-eight seconds into the flight the Challenger tragically exploded. The accident occurred at 46,000 feet in the air. The Challenger was traveling at about twice the speed of sound. Technically, the Challenger did not exploded, it fell apart due to structural failures. The crew cabin broke lose from the entire shuttle and went flying through the air. The crew cabin hit the Atlantic ocean within three minutes. The seven-crew members that belonged to the space shuttle were killed on impact. (725)
             Because of the seriousness of what happened in the Challenger accident a special team was chosen to conduct a report on the finding and reasons of the explosion. The report, delivered to President Reagan on June 6, 1986, concluded, "the cause of the Challenger accident was the failure of the pressure seal in the aft field joint of the right solid rocket motor."(McGowen, 57) it also added: "The failure was due to a faulty design unacceptably sensitive to a number of factors. These factors were the effects of the temperature, physical dimensions, the character of materials, the effects of reusability, processing and the reaction of the joint to dynamic loading." Failure to the joint, the report said, began with "decisions made in the design of th...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
the challenger . (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 11:00, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/70131.html