30 years after the Challenger disaster and NASA's change

30 years ago, the US Space and Aeronautics Agency (NASA) suffered a tragedy that shook the world, and was the reason that changed this agency forever.

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded only 73 seconds after being launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida (USA), killing all 7 astronauts on board - including Christa. McAuliffe, a teacher selected by NASA to participate in space travel. Earlier on January 27, 1967, all three NASA astronauts Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee were killed in an Apollo 1 pilot launch. However, the Challenger disaster was a story. seems completely different.

"Both the United States and the whole world were shocked when that happened, because it was the first time the United States had actually lost a space ship, along with the crew on board," former NASA Leroy astronaut. Chiao, who participated in three space shuttle missions, was also the commander of the International Space Station (ISS) from October 2004 to April 2005. "The explosion is even more shocking because Christa McAuliffe is not a professional astronaut," Chiao told Space.com. " If you lost a soldier in a military operation, it was really sad and tragic, but they did their job professionally, just like professional astronauts. For an ordinary person, their departure is really shocking . "

Cultural change

Prior to the ill-fated Challenger launched in the mission of STS-51L , there were 24 consecutive missions in the plan to be completed, starting in April 1981, from the first takeoff of the spacecraft. Columbia. Success at that time unintentionally created an undesirable complacency of the US Aerospace Agency, according to Chiao. "There was a" rush "to launch the ship at that time, helping the flights to be always on time, promoting new tasks ," he said.

" That's the kind of thinking that plays a key role in this disaster," experts concluded. After analysis, it was thought that the cause of Challenger's explosion came from the "O-ring" rubber gaskets of the ship, during which the launch was broken due to temperature changes. Losing these gaskets, hot air escapes and damages the fuel tank outside the spacecraft, as well as the accompanying equipment. According to NASA investigators, the takeoff temperature is between 2 ° C - 8 ° C, colder than any previous launch.

" The Challenger start-up decision has many shortcomings. The decision makers have no idea about the history of gaskets and joints . " In addition, the launch of the ship with a temperature exhaust of less than 11.7 ° C is also a concern, but it seems to have been missed. "They do not have a clear understanding of the concern Rockwell has given, that there is ice on the launch pad " (Rockwell International is the unit that assembles space shuttles for NASA.) "If the participants Knowing these facts, it is difficult for them to decide to launch the ship on January 28, 1986 " . In a way, this terrible accident was caused by decision makers.

" A lot of things have changed, " Chiao said. " The shuttle has been completely reviewed. Including the smallest specifications, all of which have been re-analyzed . " This job took nearly 3 years. Shuttle programs were banned soon after, until Discovery spacecraft took off on September 29, 1988.

Promote space education

The Challenger disaster claimed the lives of seven people, including: commander Francis "Dick" Scobee; pilot Mike Smith; experts Judith Resnik, Ron McNair and Ellison Onizuka; with transport experts McAuliffe and Greg Jarvis. Although it has been 30 years since that dark day, " everything just happened yesterday , " Barbara Morgan, who is considered " Teacher in Space ", acts as a McAuliffe's 'contingency plan' shared. Morgan was taken up into space in 2007, on the shuttle Endeavor. " Those people always exist with me, every day . " Morgan said Christa McAuliffe and the "Teacher in Space " project had a huge impact, although the mission of STS-51L ended in tragedy.

Christa McAuliffe is said to play an important role in changing education.

" Christa is a great teacher, a wonderful person and a shining example for our career ," Morgan said. "That's what I really, really grateful and proud of ." Just a few months after the Challenger disaster, relatives of the ill-fated astronauts set up a non-profit organization called the Challenger Space Science Education Center , as an attempt to attract students' attention. science, technology as well as math, by helping them become more interesting and more practical. Over the past 30 years, there have been nearly 4.5 million children participating in Challenger Center.

Always discover

Sadly, Challenger is not the only tragedy of the space shuttle program. On February 1, 2003, the Columbia spacecraft shattered when it returned to Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board. Crew members on the mission include Rick Husband commander; William McCool pilot; Michael Anderson; mission specialist David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark; with expert Ilan Ramon from Israel Space Agency. A piece of insulation had cut off Columbia's outer fuel tank during the launch of the probe more than two weeks earlier, causing the shuttle's left wing to be damaged. Investigators later identified this damage to allow hot air to get inside the wing, leading to the destruction of the entire ship.

Traumatic accidents with Challenger and Columbia occurred as a warning, that flights into space were extremely difficult and dangerous missions, Chiao said."I don't think space travel will be as safe as commercial air travel, just because of the amount of energy you have to put into a ship to push it into orbit at a speed of 28,160 km / h . " Chiao thinks there are always risks in flights going into space.

" Unfortunately, although we always try to minimize and avoid risks, sometimes they happen, " he added. " What we have to do is to do what we can learn from, apply the lessons and continue to move forward . " NASA's road ahead will probably be absent from space shuttles. US astronauts are still dependent on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to come and leave the International Space Station, although NASA said it hoped the private spacecraft produced by Boeing and SpaceX would be ready to Receive this service at the end of 2017.

NASA is now actively working towards the goal of bringing people to Mars in the 2030s. The agency is developing a module called Orion and the giant Launch System Space rocket to implement ambition. mine.