What happened in the earlier Challenger disaster?
On 28th January 1986 the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after lift-off, killing all seven astronauts on board – Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space. The whole shuttle programme was grounded as a result of the disaster until 1988 as NASA made major changes to the shuttle and programme management. After extensive investigations it was reported that the Challenger accident was caused by a faulty joint on the solid booster rockets of the shuttle. It was agreed that the cold weather on the day that Challenger was launched was a major contributing factor to the disaster as the cold caused the o rings (rubber seals) in the booster rockets to fail. As a result hot gases in the booster rockets leaked out and melted the joint that held the booster to the shuttle which ultimately caused the shuttle to explode. What sorts of experiments did the astronauts do on board Columbia? O
