Short Story: The Challenger Explosion

January 28, 1986, marks the day of the Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion. A day that will go down in history as a horrible tragedy for both NASA and America. Seven lives were lost that day, including the life of a high school teacher from New Hampshire. Former President Ronald Reagan was tasked with explaining this tragic event to the US people. Because of this, Reagan postponed the State of the Union Address and spoke about the Challenger Explosion instead. In his address to the nation about the explosion of the space shuttle, Challenger, President Ronald Reagan effectively commemorates the loss of the Challenger crew while also celebrating the crew’s achievements and encouraging further space travel by establishing pathos through his show of empathy, employing strong positive connotation, and alluding to the great explorer, Sir Francis Drake.

The challenger disaster called for certain changes in the NASA organizational structure, culture and operations. The Rogers Commission carried out a full investigation into the causes of the disaster and recommended to NASA certain actions to mitigate future incidents. First of all, there was a creation of a Solid Rocket Motor Joint redesign team who would also analyse the sealing system (NATA Technical Reports Centre, 2010).

The speech “Address to the Nation on the Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy” has a very clear context. The author of this speech is American president Ronald Reagan in 1980s. The purpose of the speech is to announce a tragedy of the Space Challenger to the whole country, especially for their families and schoolchildren and people who worked in NASA. Meanwhile, president also wanted to memorize these seven persons and cheer up the space program. Finally, the audience of the speech is the whole Americans. The speech is given in Washington, and given by President Reagan; we can see this must a big accident in America. This speech tried to pacify all Americans

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].

As discussed earlier, approximately 17 percent of Americans witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle on live broadcast and the rest soon learned about the tragic event through newspaper, radio or television. The whole country was in shock, grief and fear. That’s why Reagan chose to address to all of American people at the beginning of this speech “we share this pain with all of the people of our country” and “this is truly a national loss.”

Though Cindy and Tom did not recall specific details of conversations they had with others about the Challenger disaster, their feelings and opinions are mirrored in many of the quotes found in Vaidyanathan’s article. The article portrays a “national grief,”8 which came across when Cindy described the event as a “horrible tragedy,”3 and when Tom said “it was just a shocking

On February 1,2003, the Columbia was set to return to the Earth from its 16 day mission conducting medical experiments. The return was televised, but instead of our nation watching the 7 crew members safely land, the nation watched the shuttle explode, killing all 7 crew members. In a televised address from the White House, George W. Bush stated, “The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind was led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and a longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on” (Gatehouse, “A Nation Mourns”). George W. Bush explains that even though the nation will mourn those 7 crewmen, the need for those medical experiments is still crucial. He believes that the curiosity of not knowing what is in space is more important than the safety of our people. An article in Maclean’s, written by Jonathon Gatehouse,

To highlight a real world example, President Ronald Reagan’s “Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger Address to the Nation” speech represents an elegant expression of both mourning and reassurance following a traumatic experience. On January 28, 1986, the President delivered this poignant yet encouraging address to a heartbroken nation. The citizens of America were distressed over the recent morning Challenger shuttle explosion. Thus, it was Reagan’s ultimate objective to soothe a grief-stricken, deeply anguished people. The President understood the precarious position the United States’ space program balanced upon; therefore, his speech additionally aims at protecting NASA’s dependable status and unrestricted capabilities within the country.

During the year of 1986, on January the twenty sixth, a horrific shock was felt around the country. After Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon, Americans felt a great sense of national pride and invincibility but many Americans learned on that fateful day that nobody is invincible; one of the worst catastrophes of the United States space program occurred on that day. About forty five seconds after liftoff, Americans witnessed the destruction of the breathtaking challenger space shuttle. Even though the disaster caused nationwide sadness, the reasons for its failure are clear. Named after the British ship that sailed across the Atlantic hundreds of years, could carry more than two thousand pounds the challenger was truly a glorious achievement.

On the cold morning of January 28th, 1986, The Space Shuttle Challenger was launched. Seventy-three seconds into the flight, the space shuttle broke apart, causing the seven deaths of its crew members. Roger Boisjoly, a mechanical engineer for Thiokol brought to NASA’s attention about a failing O-ring safety concern in the shuttles rocket booster. After being ignored by NASA Boisjoly tried to bring the issue of the O-ring to people higher up in his company, all of the people ignored Boisjoly in his attempts to get the issue resolved. Thirteen hours before the launch of the shuttle, Boisjoly strongly urged not to launch the shuttle, all attempts failed. After the disaster took place Boisjoly told the press exactly why the shuttle failed to

With seven ‒ novice as well as seasoned ‒ astronauts on board, they were going to space to deploy a satellite “into orbit to observe Halley’s comet”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident” 256). The first affirmation of a problem was gray smoke, this was detected 678 seconds into flight. Shortly after the smoke there was a small flame and “at 73 seconds, the Challenger reached an altitude of 46,000 feet and exploded”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident” 256). That evening, President Ronald Reagan said: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident” 256). Five months later, in June 1986, it was conjectured “that a fuel leak through faulty rubber O-rings that sealed joint sections of the rocket booster caused the accident”(“The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident”

On January 28, 1986, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the space shuttle Challenger. The launch was held in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at the Kennedy Space Center. The Challenger shuttle carried seven crew members, including pilots, aerospace engineers and a citizen. Unfortunately, after it launched, the space shuttle broke apart and hit the ocean. The failure of the mission traumatized the whole nation. In fact, millions of people watched the shocking tragedy on television. This incident saddened the nation, and President Ronald Reagan appointed some persons from different areas, such as engineers, pilots, politicians and astronauts, to find the cause of this disaster. Although the investigation revealed that the main reason for the disaster was because of technical issues. In actuality, the disaster was caused by the decision to launch, which was driven by political pressures. The focus on political interest over hard science was the reason for the Challenger disaster.

“You know, like in Apollo 13, they try to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and the ship is burning up. We don’t even have a ship anymore.”

Next on the list is Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion of 1944. “On October 20, 1944, a storage tank holding liquefied natural gas, that was kept above ground as was common at the time, began leaking. The liquefied gas dropped into the sewer lines, mixed with air and sewer gas, and consequently ignited. A series of fires and explosions killed 130 people in Cleveland, Ohio. The catastrophe event made a significant impact on the natural gas industry, that started to store the tanks below ground” (Engineering Disasters, 2017, p. 1). Again, it is obvious the lesson learned here but that doesn’t take away from how important it is. The lesson was to store such gas below ground and to make calculations for the unexpected.

The case study I chose to analyze was the Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion by Ronald C. Kramer. Kramer discussed four main components that led to the catastrophic explosion. These components include the societal context, the final flaw, the persons behind the final decision to launch, and lastly the failure of social control mechanisms. There was not just one factor that led to the failure of the launch. As Kramer discusses the different concepts that led to the failure point to state-corporate crime as a private business and government agency interacted.