Challenger Memorial - McCaysville, GA
Posted by: 
debbado
N 34° 59.274 W 084° 22.271
16S E 739948 N 3874858
Quick Description: This small memorial is near a truss bridge by the Georgia/Tennessee border. There is parking nearby.
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 7/6/2009 1:50:20 PM
Waymark Code: WM6Q5H
Views: 3
Long Description:?In Memory Of
Astronauts of Space Shuttle Challenger
Francis Scobee 1939-1986
Judith Resnik 1949-1986
Christa McAuliffe 1948-1986
Ronald McNair 1950-1986
Michael Smith 1945-1986
Ellison Onizuka 1946-1986
Gregory Jarvis 1944-1986
__________________________________________________________________________________
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986,
when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its
flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The
spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of
central Florida, United States at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC).
Disintegration of the entire vehicle began after an O-ring seal
in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The
O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing
pressurized hot gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the
outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB attachment hardware and
external fuel tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand
SRB's aft attachment and the structural failure of the external
tank. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter.
The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were
eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search
and recovery operation. Although the exact timing of the death of
the crew is unknown, several crew members are known to have
survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. However the shuttle
had no escape system and the astronauts did not survive the impact
of the crew compartment with the ocean surface.
The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle
program and the formation of the Rogers Commission, a special
commission appointed by United States President Ronald Reagan to
investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found that NASA's
organizational culture and decision-making processes had been a key
contributing factor to the accident. NASA managers had known that
contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs contained a
potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but they
failed to address it properly. They also disregarded warnings from
engineers about the dangers of launching on such a cold day and had
failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their
superiors. The Rogers Commission offered NASA nine recommendations
that were to be implemented before shuttle flights resumed.
Many viewed the launch live due to the presence on the crew of
Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space
Project. Media coverage of the accident was extensive: one study
reported that 85 percent of Americans surveyed had heard the news
within an hour of the accident. The Challenger disaster has been
used as a case study in many discussions of engineering safety and
workplace ethics and inspired the 1990 television movie,
Challenger.
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