Astronauts: The Columbia Disaster

On 1st of February, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia exploded when it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere after finished a 16 days mission in space. All seven astronauts were dead because of this incident. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had stopped the space shuttle program for more than two years to investigate this tragedy. In the 16 days period, the astronauts did approximately 80 experiments on different categories, for example, life science and material science [1]. An investigation later has found out that the disaster was caused by a problem on the day that took off on 16th of January.

1.0 Introduction Seventy three seconds into its 10th flight, on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing the seven crew members on board [1]. The Challenger was the second space shuttle constructed by NASA and had completed nine successful missions prior to the disaster. Following the accident, the shuttle program was suspended for 32 months as President Ronald Regan appointed a Commission, chaired by William P. Rogers and known as the Rogers Commission, to investigate the cause of the accident [1].

Background On the morning of January 28th, 1986, Americans watched in shock and horror as the space shuttle Challenger exploded only 74 seconds after its launch, killing all seven crew members on board including a high school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Thousands, including families of the crew and schoolchildren

The case study of the two shuttle disasters, the Challenger occurred on January 28th 1986, and the Columbia occurred on February 1st, 2003. Both majestic and yet mournful due to the loss of life on both mission. The Challenger shuttle flight, OV-099 mission STS-51-L, broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of all crew members which included five astronauts and two payload specialists. The Challenger disaster was especially traumatic because young students watched television that were placed in their classrooms so they could watch the launch that day. It was fascinating that a school teacher was on-board as a payload specialist (NASA, 1986.) With a school teacher aboard the flight, it had sparked many interests because at several at young age, understood that education was vital as to why there was such a failure and prevent future disasters.

Space Shuttle Rhetorical situation is connected with the catastrophe of shuttle "Challenger" of January 28, 1986. In the beginning of the mission STS-51L the spacecraft exploded on 73 seconds into the flight, causing the death of all seven crewmembers. The shuttle disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean near the central part of

Introduction Brief description of the two space shuttle tragedies In the early morning hours of February 1, 2003, some 38 miles above the Earth in the skies above Texas, the space shuttle Columbia exploded upon reentry. All seven astronauts were lost. For many, who witnessed the white trail of smoke and debris shower falling to the plains below, it was a reminder of the space shuttle Challenger’s destruction a minute after leaving the launch pad at Cape Canaveral seventeen years earlier in 1986.

Shuttle Challenger Disaster In March, 1970, President Richard Milhous Nixon “opted for the shuttle-tended space base as a long-range goal but deferred going ahead with the space station pending development of the shuttle vehicle” (NASA,1986). Thus the Space Shuttle, which was considered as merely the transport element of a broad earlier, was reused and became the concentration of NASA's near- term future. Challenger, as NASA’s second orbiter which was put into service after Columbia in Space Shuttle program, began its maiden flight on April 4th, 1983. It made nine flights in total prior to 1986. Owing to payload changes, cold weather, and other technical problems, Challenger was rescheduled continually and finally determined to launch from

The Challenger Disaster: Fated Before Liftoff In 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger launched from Kennedy Space Center people watched in awe for a little more than a minute before the shuttle exploded in flight. This was the first of only two major accidents that occurred during over two decades of NASA’s shuttle program and many would consider it to be a fluke that could not have been prevented or predicted. In truth the Challenger disaster was an accident waiting to happen and was a symptom of systemic problems that were occurring at NASA during that era. The 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster was cause by a number of factors including structural failure of the shuttle, a change in NASA’s work environment from the days of the

On April 10, 1975, Nasa discovered a long, spooky, undesirable creature looking at a spacecraft landed on Neptune. Nasa believes that the creature was unhappy and looked threatening. People from all over the world realized that Voyager (An Astronaut), is the one who travelled on that spacecraft but came back to Earth on a different spacecraft. Anyways, Voyager reports Nasa that the alien looked like a dangerous alien with red eyes and was bold. Voyager also states that the creature was wearing a black and red tuxedo which he couldn’t see that well because the creature wore a huge blue coat over it.

On the icy morning of January 28, 1986, seven brave people boarded the Challenger space shuttle. All of America sat around their televisions watching and waiting for the space shuttle to finally lift off. One of the seven people aboard this shuttle was Christa McAuliffe, a teacher in the Teachers in Space program and would have been the first civilian to go into space. Her students were invited to come to NASA and watch. The engines roar sounded loudly and the shuttle finally left the ground. It was an illuminating sight to see, until a flame started at the base of the shuttle. The space shuttle caught on fire what seemed like instantly, and exploded within seconds. Due to this tragedy, the NASA space program has made several improvements to prevent tragedies like this one from ever happening again (Carreau). NASA may have made improvements, but the horrifying memory of this disaster will be embedded in the minds of the people of America and Christa 's class for the rest of their lives.

The main culprit of the Columbia disaster was a piece of foam that had fallen off during launch and hit the shuttle causing damage. Throughout nearly all of NASA’s historic missions there have repeatedly been instances of foam strikes to shuttles that were taken seriously. However, as foam strikes occurred frequently during missions they were put down as an acceptable risk and a “in family” event. This way of thinking made NASA’s organizational environment very lenient towards foam debris damage in missions. NASA’s history and how they dealt with foam strikes ended up bringing in an environment to the organization that looked at the foam strike in the Columbia shuttle as standard, which ended up dooming the mission. Another reason NASA’s Columbia

BODY: Sad news from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:38 a.m. January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart, disintegrating into the Atlantic Ocean, 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The crew included, five NASA astronauts and two Payload Specialists. NASA believes cold weather contributed to the fatal failure of the spacecraft. Christa McAuliffe an American high school teacher, Francis Scobee an American astronaut, Judith Resnik an American engineer, Michael Smith the pilot of the space shuttle, Ronald

The artwork above are pictures of different settings from the book, Almost Astronauts: 13 women who dared to dream. The picture at the top left is Eileen Collins in a space shuttle preparing for a launch into space. Like the book’s setting, my picture also shows Eileen getting dressed properly. She was the first woman to command a space shuttle. The picture on the top right shows a woman caring for her child. The book’s picture also explains that women in the 1960’s had to do all the household chores while caring for their families. My image expresses the same idea about women in the 1960’s. On the middle left, you can see a person in a space centrifuge. A space centrifuge is a piece of equipment that rotates with extreme speeds on an axis.

Final Summary “Eating In Space” In the days of early exploration, astronauts that went into space didn't have water or even the same food as we do on Earth. They bring dehydrated food and didn't have utensils they had to eat with their hands. They didn't have a refrigerator; that's why they brought dehydrated food. Crumbs can cause damage to the space shuttle, by getting into the instruments and breaking them. Bread has a lot of crumbs, so astronauts eat tortillas. Today, astronauts eat food that isn't dehydrated, a fuel cell makes water, and they can heat food up in an oven.

One of the greatest tragedies in history occurred on January 8, 1986. Shortly after it was launched, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire schoolteacher chosen to be the first teacher in space (“Challenger Disaster, n.d.). The explosion was caused by a failure of the O-rings of the solid rocket boosters. The O-rings were unable to seat properly, causing the leaking of hot combustion gases, which burnt through the external fuel tank. The malfunction was not any one person’s or organization’s fault; it was caused by many factors including the decision to launch despite the cold weather, the poor communication between management levels of the National Aeronautics and