The Challenger Disaster of 1986

Background:
The Challenger was a shuttle which was
supposed to carry cargo, a satellite, and the
Shuttle-Pointed Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN203) into space. It was the first ever shuttle to
be part of the Teacher in Space programme.
The crew was made up of a mission
commander, a pilot, three mission specialists,
and two payload specialists including the
teacher, Sharon Christa McAullife [1].Figure 1 [2]
shows the basic structure of the Challenger.
The Disaster:
Originally, The Challenger was scheduled for take-off on January 22nd 1986
but it was then rescheduled to the 24th, then the 25th, and then the 27th
due to bad weather conditions [3]. It was then further delayed because the
ground servicing equipment hatch closing fixture couldnt be removed
from the orbiter hatch so had to be sawed off. In addition this, there was
also a problem with the hardware which was supposed to detect fire. At
11:38:00 a.m. EST on the 28th January 1986, the Challenger finally took
off. Sadly, there was an explosion 73 seconds after launch, and the crew
of seven died [7].
What happened?
Figure 2 [4] shows how a Solid Rocket Booster is
held together. To understand the image, joint rotation must
be explained. When pressure builds up inside the rocket, it
pushes the walls out past the
joints, creating a gap in the
area in red. This causes hot
gas to flow past the rubber
O-rings and causes them to
erode. The hot gas that flew
past the O-rings burnt a hole
into the adjacent main external
fuel tank, causing the fuel tank to
slowly collapse and release the liquid hydrogen
and liquid oxygen propellants inside it. The mixing of these
chemicals caused them to ignite, creating a giant fireball
this was the explosion. The Challenger shuttle was still intact but became
unstable due to the aerodynamic forces. The entire rocket fell apart in the
sky. Contrary to popular belief, the explosion did not kill the crew; they
died because the crew cabin fell into the sea at 200mph [3] , causing the
crew to experience an extremely high braking force and die.

Importance of O-rings:
The rubber O-rings in the rocket were used as seals to prevent hot gases
from breaking through the joints due to joint rotation. When joint rotation
occurs, the O-rings are supposed to expand due to the hotter
temperatures, move out of their places and create a seal to prevent hot
gases from leaking. This is called extrusion and the longer it takes to
happen, the more damage is done to the O-rings. On the Challenger
launch day, temperatures were very low meaning that the rubber O-rings
were compromised and were so cold that extrusion didnt even occur. The
fact that they were made out of rubber is extremely important because
when rubber is cold (like on the day of the launch), the molecules
rearrange slightly and cant go back to how they were before which means
the rubber cant expand properly/ will take a long time to do so.
Effects:
All launch activity for shuttles/rockets was stopped for several years while
technical issues were fixed and proper safety measures were put into
place e.g. now all rockets must have three O-rings made of a better
performing material called fluorosilicone or nitrile rubber [5] in their Solid
Rocket Booster joints.
The US government funded NASA to help them recover from the issue
their budget rose to $21 billion from $15.5 billion [6] , meaning future
missions could potentially have more testing done before launch.
A major social effect of the disaster was that the family and friends were
devastated from the passing of their loved ones everyone who watched
the launch (on site and on TV) were also shocked from seeing the
explosion, especially due to the fact that one of the crew was a teacher.