Challenger Disaster Details That Will Chill You To The Bone 

They’re all still alive

@@TOCC50yup. Just watched Level with me documentary.

Amen ❤

Conspiracy theory is that they faked their deaths for clout.

they died on impact

So it was cheaper to blow up a shuttle, rather than delay?

​@@laneromel5667 No. You missed the point.

NASA didn't care and still doesn't....I trust engineers; and not directors.

​@@laneromel5667....you completely missed the point. Great job.

​@@laneromel5667 you already know the answer

According to two idiots replying in the post above yours this never happened. Thank you for sharing this so these freaks can't get away with that conspiracy crap here.

You are speaking truth

Morton Thiokol's head engineer (looking at losing a $ 3 million contract, if it didn't launch) was surprised it cleared the tower without blowing up! I.e. Nasa politics, hard at work!

@@BWT268 You 2 forgot to think before posting! Lawyers weren't mention in the book I read on the topic! What body orfice did you 2 pull your info & feelings & ridicule out of? Inquering minds want to know!

yeah, engineers never lie and never make mistakes.

But those type managers also gave us Boeing 737 MAX and Titianic !

Do you believe Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong as they fidgeted and hemmed and hawed at their press conference after Apollo 11? I don't.

I call it the fault of A.I.'s precursor, Algorithms of Imbecility, or A.I. with human failure due to believing an algorithm over logic.

That is true but engineers overestimate material performance and underestimate material performance in applications resulting in preventable failures all the time. They then blame someone else when it all turns to crap, meaning it's a human phenomenon. Dams/bridges/spillways/leaning buildings/aircraft/cars/software/tires/bearings the list is utterly endless. It's not all dopey bureaucrats though they are worthy of strong ridicule I admit.

Pilots he the driest darkest since of humor. I love it.

Why wasn’t NASA sued!!!!

Wasn't he the one who reportedly pounded on his car's dashboard on the way to work, yelling in front of his daughter in the car, that the seals weren't going to hold? I saw the interview with the old greedy buzzard who gave the launch a go-ahead. He acknowledged his decision resulted in their deaths, but blamed pressure/deadlines. Now this stuff has been happening at Boeing & as history repeats in the space between corporate & scientific stakeholders. Science & business make for awful bedfellows. Science FIRST, and only then may corporate make use of it. Innovation be damned, science first.

@@NunchucksHabit Money will almost always come out as priority when they think it can. The issue is, sometimes they think they know more than engineers they hire. This is what causes issues. Yes, there are some things you can probably skimp on, but when an engineer tells you it's going to fial if you do this, you should probably listen.

@@NunchucksHabit That's news to me. I doubt it, Allan was quite stoic. So many engineers, from Parker Hanifin, Thikol, NASA...you can imagine.

​@@Jeff-bz6jp Bob Ebeling was one of the engineers who said this, also Bob Russell. Ebeling's daughter, Leslie Serna, was PR for Morton Thiokol. In episode 3 of the Netflix series "Challenger", the episode starts with her describing her father's anger/despondence. He was driving her to work at M.Thiokol, 3hrs before the launch. I can't type it here or RU-vid will dump it based on trigger words. You're right though, it wasn't Allan McDonald, but Bob Ebeling, one of the SRB engineers. If only they'd listened to them.

​@@NunchucksHabit same in doctors vs insurance companies

My father, an engineer, worked for NASA. His opinion was that management tried to turn the shuttle into a bus service.

Yah I have talked to a thiacol analyst. Seems to be a common malady.

@@davidg4288 That was the original plan.

Been there, done that…

I was in our 8th grade math class at that moment, watching it live. When we saw the explosion, we all looked at each other in disbelief. As seconds slowly dragged by we kept hearing the remarks coming from capcom. Our teacher & my classmates kept staring at the TV. When it was over, no one knew what to say. Eventually our teacher said "You have no idea what this just did to the space program. Someday youll all better understand this historic moment"

This is so crazy to me. So far, you're the second person in this comment section who, either worked on the Challenger or has a close relationship to it. I'll never forget that moment

It was my second day working there on the shuttle program. It was a sad, terrible time

The same Joe Hernandez as the recent film, or different one?

AND PEOPLE ARE SO ESLEEP. THEY WERE NEVER IN THAT SHIP, AND THE SHEEPLE STILL BELIEVE THEY DIED IN THAT SHIP. NOT ONE WAS ON THAT SHIP, AND IT CAN BE PROVEN. THIS WAR IS SPIRITUAL, AND NOT NATURAL. NASA IN HEBREW MEANS TO DECEIVE. OPEN YOUR F$%KING EYES PEOPLE TO TRUTH. .

​@@nickslick75sorry, what?

Omg, I was 27 years old back then with two young kids, my grandmother kept saying she should be home with her kids(the teacher) I will never forget that day, it was also my youngest sister’s birthday! I wonder how different the comments would be back then if we had this internet and fb thing then!!!

@@marymccaffrey48 I was going to ask the same thing. Maybe they think no one is still around who was married in 1986 lol.

@@nickslick75you’re heartless and cruel

I was in the eleventh grade

I watched this with my junior high classmates in art class and our instructor, a veteran. The class was full of preteen boys who were jerks and general trouble makers. When the shuttle exploded, they started laughing. Our instructor picked up a desk and threw it at the wall right in front of them, breaking it and yelling at them to shut their damn mouths and have some respect for the people that just died in front of their faces, and kicked them out of his classroom, never to be allowed back, while the rest of us were still sitting in shock watching the TV and trying to make sense of everything that has just happened. Our instructor deserved an award for doing more to teach those boys about respect than their parents probably had up to that point in their lives.

You would have survived as a doppelganger.

I blamed Regan, he was behind the push for the first teacher in space fiasco. There was plenty of controversy about the cold weather and the troublesome delays.

That is typical management, not listening to engineers and making political reasons.

This sounds more and more like a case of Corporate Murder to me!!

...and the shame of not letting the actual people FLYING that mission know there was a possible issue. I believe the reason they didn't tell them because it's ultimately up to the captain if he wants to delay that particular mission or not.

It’s called government bureaucrats in action.

They're all white collar.

Still goes on today

Engineers aren't traditionally considered "blue collar" and they also are not in harms way.

This happened because America is run by greedy people who do care about human lives ...much like the b.s. military who gets people killed and maimed for so called protecing us from Communists

You should have found a way to contact the customers anonymously and let them know it was the managers fault and not the engineers fault.

Had the same issue thing happen to me. “Eliminating a key position” should be trigger to HR and top management something terrible is to happen.

At least you kept your integrity, they had none.

The only way you can deny a boss a product or project that will earn him/her praise, is publicly. You have to send a memo company-wide or at least division-wide to explain why you decided on delaying progress. ESPECIALLY if it's consumer safety. You can outright claim your reason for doing so as a customer safety issue, and also to mention if you're suddenly terminated, something's fishy. Forget NDA's, customer safety trumps those, especially when media are involved. Fight as dirty as you need to. Easy for me to say, but I've been where you are.

Easier said than done. The Challenger disaster was part of the university course Engineering & Ethics. It didn't happen because it was rushed. It happened because of conflicts of interest. NASA was eager to launch because of the upcoming budgetting talks. Morton Thiokol wanted to launch because they were facing contract renewal. The engineers had data to back up their claim that it would be too cold. Corporate pressure vs. engineers. The engineers lost. The Challenger was doomed.

Also,. never ride an explosive rocket into the sky, either.

@@grassroot1100 but but we went to tha moon I's tells ya SIX times flawlessly many years earlier, and 1000 times farther than we've ever been!! I's tells ya, I saw'er it on the Talmudvision.

Unless your budget and PR is on the line.

I was in high school as well. I was walking by the library that was showing it. I decided to walk in and watch it. I will never forget those images and the sounds of shock the moment it happenec

I was a freshman, in social studies class. Same thing, then absolute silence. You could’ve heard a pin drop. It was a Catholic, all girls school. We had a prayer service for them later in the afternoon. Not a dry eye in that assembly. I’ll never forget it. 🙏🏻😓

I was a senior in high school as well, in health class. The news came over the loudspeaker. We were all in shock. So tragic. May they all rest in peace.

I was a Freshman.. same thing.. We were in the school chapel (religious school), and it was surreal. I was awful to see live and so unexpected...NASA having the 2nd grade teacher go up, made me feel like one day it may be possible for me. As quick as the snap of a finger. BOOM. I was definitely in Shock

I was also in high school when this disaster happened as I was in the library and one of my classmates (I still remember his name) came up to me and told me that the shuttle blew up. I didn't believe him at first until I walked into the AV room in the library and the whole event was playing on the television. This event was ALMOST like the day 911 happened in that it's one of those times in history you never forget.

No the irresponsible people that have been in charge that killed them ! They should be charged for this?

Political greed

Go back to sleep, Karl.

There's proof that several of the astronauts are still alive.

Hey your name kicks ass.

They know more how to "keep" their job, than to do their job.

That jibes with my experience.

Just look at politics nowadays, it's the same thing. Scammers, all.

McCauliffs son watched his mother lose her life. Her parents. Every viewer.

I was home sick with mono in Canada, and just horrified seeing the McCaulliff family. I didn't understand what was happening until the news anchors explained it. It was horrible.

@@paulgerrard9227 Christa's last words; What's this button do?

Holding my newborn, watching the launch. Nobody that saw it will ever forget.

lol All but one of them are still alive. Watch the documentary " Level with me"... Its clear as day that theyre alive.... I was shocked

Saving money and saving lives are 2 completely different things. Stop trying to make what happened to you more important. You need jesus.

Well, she was female in an era of Affirmative Action wasn't she

@@cobar5342 What does that have to do with anything? You think diversity in the crew was the problem here?

Not just the flight crew. People on the ground also died as a result of coming into contact with Challenger debris which was covered in volatile fuels. Multiple people died at the cape from a rare form of lymphoma. The common denominator was they all been assigned to the challenger investigation. RIP Uncle Kevin.

@@datapusher- Interesting. I did not know this.

@@oldauntzibby4395 You missed the point. The media focussed on the woman because it was hip to do so

Seems space isn't as fragile as the spaceships.

I will NEVER forget that day. It was only 3 days after my 13th birthday and I considered getting to watch the Challenger launch in 7th grade English class an additional b-day gift.... I surely didn't expect to see what we did. No-one in that little portable classroom knew what to think, even Mrs Ponder, our teacher. But I do remember that she sat the rest of the class time having discussion with us and trying her best to make sure that we were as okay as possible. She was such a treasure of a teacher and a wonderful friend of mine still

I was 24 years old, working away at my mechanical engineering job. I didn't see it live, but there were TVs available, and it was soon switched on. As a room full of mechanical and electrical engineers, we sure paid attention to the aftermath. Just like the Boeing debacles now, money over safety was at the root. Some lessons are never fully learned.

I was in Grade 6 too, and I don't think we saw it happen. We did hear about it, and our teachers were pretty upset, so were a lot of us students. Up until that point, I wanted to be an astronaut, but seeing it made me change my mind. So horrifying for their families, friends, students, and all who saw it unfold. :/

We watched it in 1st grade I still remember wondering what happened because the teacher just turned off the tv and didn’t say anything, knowing now that they were alive in their seats as the shuttle broke up and started free falling is horrible to imagine.

😢 I remember that day never forgotten I was in 8th grade 4th period science class before lunch in Cocoa Florida at JFK middle school remember going outside with my class and we heard the explosion I even asked my teacher at the time if it was normal after that I couldn’t eat lunch ended up being sick from watching 7 ppl die before my very eyes we were supposed to be in audience but we canceled at the last minute when I got home mama told me the windows on our house were shaking that night we had a family discussion for a week I kept having reaccuring nightmares a couple days later after the challenger disaster we all went to the beach for the memorial for the crew we all lit candles and flashlights pointing to the ocean and hearing a military official playing “Taps” nobody spoke a l there wasn’t a dry eye in site I will never forget 😢😢😢RIP fly high

They shielded our eyes from this failure we went back to our studies, very strict private school.

There is evidence that some of them were not knocked out. Certain switches meant that some of them were awake for the fall to earth

NASA said later that the break up forces probably did not incapacitate the crew, and that the G forces abated almost immediately. The crew cabin broke away, tumbling and continued to climb for another minute, then started falling toward the ocean. I believe the cabin depressurized and the crew was alive, but unconscious when the cabin hit the water.

Interesting comments

The astronauts were not knocked out. How were air packs enabled if they were knocked out. Some were conscious for the trip down to impact with the ocean.

@erickanter the air packs were called PEAPS (peeps) and were meant for use if the shuttle had to be evacuated on the pad. They were not pressurized oxygen, just regular air, and would not have kept the crew conscious. The cabin had hundreds of inlets and connections to the cargo bay that ripped loose in the cabin separation, so very likely the cabin did depressive and the crew would have passed out and would not have regained consciousness before water impact. Of the 7 peeps, I believe 4 were recovered. The commander's was identified and had not been activated. The pilots had been activated and was some 7/10 depleted. His unit was mounted on the back of his seat frame, which meant that MS Resnik had the job of activating it, which she apparently did. Some switches indicated that Mike Smith tried to restart power units and was going through some response to the emergency, but did not finish the sequence.

and then everyone stood up and clapped for you?

W moment

I was in our 8th grade math class at that moment, watching it live. When we saw the explosion, we all looked at each other in disbelief. As the minutes dragged on we kept hearing the remarks coming from capcom. Our teacher & my classmates kept staring at the TV. When it was over, no one knew what to say. Eventually our teacher said "You have no idea what this just did to the space program. Someday youll all better understand this historic moment"

​@TJfromEarth Almost exactly what happened to my class at 9/11. I don't think you know how the everyone clapped joke works hun.

I'm sure the teacher who ran out had a breakdown. I am sure many still grieve over this incident

And at altitude.... Huh... Not rocket science to know how temperatures fall down to minus 40 at altitude. Not to mention the speed that rocket gets there.. Dam effing stupid just thinking of releasing that rocket. No wonder Elon Musk eats them for breakfast to day. Another clever South African.

Oh 100% The govt has prior knowledge on a lot of national tragedies. its despicable

Very interesting. I can imagine large pieces of material at terminal velocity could make quite a shock wave upon hitting various surfaces. Water from that height would be like concrete since it is virtually incompressible.

@@bustercam199 A commercial fisherman we knew named Jimmy Cawthorn saw large pieces hitting Toledo Bend Lake in deep water...around 80 feet deep. They never found them all. I was on the Louisiana side of the top 1/3rd of the lake. They found body parts not very far to the west & southwest of this location in East Texas. I think there was a plan in place to attempt an emergency landing in the lake and the Shuttle had begun to turn to the southeast possibly attempting to line up with it. Usually they passed directly over our region above DeSoto Parish. We watched them pass directly overhead multiple times coming in for landings in Florida.

@@poindextertunes The sheer number of the black helicopters we saw that morning hovering in place before the roar died down proves to me they knew it was bad and I believe the two pilots knew about the potential for a serious problem to develop and never told the other passengers. They ordered one of the females to go ahead and get her helmet on and McCool`s eyes had a strange seriousness as he looked at the controls and numbers he was seeing.

It occurred over ocean. North is ocean too. The location of the launch facilities was to limit issues with expected failed launches. Rockets are controlled explosions. Downrange is the atlantic ocean.

Really? That would have been the first thing I thought of.

Different timeframe and butterfly effect. Changing even a small detail in a chain of events and projecting it in an alternate universe might change the outcome drastically. Maybe an engineer could have proven the rings and even using solid rocket boosters (which Von Braun always said was a no no for any manned flight) should have been changed, or the previous or next launch of the STS would have been catastrophic but not that one...

Nah, bro.

Nah, he was saying the truth. Not their day, from their perspective. From the astronauts' perspectives though, and their families and friends... That would have been an understatement.

Yes. Even an engineering student who'd at least got to Mechanics of Materials course would know.

I used to live in Akron!! Was she laid to rest there?

@@robertmiller5516 Sadly no, she was laid to rest in Arlington

Well said....logic is SO underrated.

You've got a right to be sceptical, but the Challenger disaster was much more of a preventable one than the Columbia was. The design brief of the Space Shuttle called for an temperature operating window of "above freezing" and yet they launched anyway. They had blow-by data of the SRB o-rings to back that up. The bit of insulating foam that damaged one of the leading edges of the Columbia during its launch? That catastrophical problem was much less obvious directly after it occurred. Only in hindsight was that clear.

Scary part is there was an early indication on one of the other flights. The second flight after challenger blew was Atlantis. It was a military flight so it made it harder for the people onboard to contact NASA. The fact that it was military is also the reason why they were saved. They had multiple foam strikes on the way up. The damage to the tiles was extensive. Something like 179 tiles were damaged with one removed completely. Because it was a military flight there was extra thick panelling welded in to protect certain equipment. That spot happened to be where the tile was. They would have burned through if that panel wasn’t there. Any other flight it would have done. This was how many years before Columbia and they knew about this issue and did nothing about it.

@@Hydrazine1000but they knew about foam strikes before Columbia launch. They knew years before it happened. Saying Columbia wasn’t preventable just isn’t true. Have a look at the video featuring Hoot Gibson in which he talks about the foam strike on his flight. It was the second flight after Challanger

@@cherrytraveller5915 Ok, I'll accept your point that for Columbia there were clear prior indications of problems too. The Challenger disaster is still is more egregious in my book, since (as I understand it) the NASA-specified operating temperature window for which the SBRs were designed, was not respected. Even worse (again if my recollection is correct, this was from a university course on ethics in engineering some 20+ years ago) is that the Challenger had two launch windows that fateful day. One in the morning, which they opted to use, and one in the afternoon. The O-rings _might have_ warmed up sufficiently, had they chosen the afternoon. But that's not what they did.

reagan and his cronies fxcked this world so bad

NASA bureaucrats are the reason that flight was pushed. Like most government agencies, they waste and waste good taxpayer money. Public interest in the space program was beginning to wane and they didn't want to lose their teat on the cash cow. They needed a big PR boost and that's when management decided to ignore the warnings and sacrifice that crew.

That's right. For once in his life the so-called Great Communicator had nothing to say. In fact he went into hiding like the coward he was. Sunny optimism and American Exceptionalism took a heavy punch in the gut on that day. And millions of brainwashed little kids got a reality check.

Thank you. I was going to bring this up. This should have been mentioned in this video.

They omitted the explosion itself too. In this world , to not repeat such horrific mistakes everyone must see them raw so it strikes a chord within us. Never again can be applied to many horrible situations humanity has endured but this was extremely easy to avoid. It’s amazing how much nasa managed to disregard on project challenger. Rip to the crew and I hope the families have found peace..!

When the truth is gory or gruesome videographers tend to leave it out, dont want to upset the children dont ya know.

@@williegilligan2661 let's not upset the children so we all just forget about the reality of things and pretend it's all rainbows and sunshine... That'll definitely prepare us for the real world.

@@williegilligan2661 I understand, I have kids myself.. i know RU-vid demonitizes stuff that’s intense but some times it’s worth it to really educate people. This video, if you didn’t already know that it exploded you may not fully understand the tragedy.. thry elude to “disaster “ but I’m tired of big brother un alive vs dead type “newspeak “ censorship.

But the omission changes the facts of the story and lessens the impact and attitude of the viewer

Never trust management

Hoaxalicious

So true... 😢

In the case of Boeing, there were engineers who knew the 737Max was a very risky design, but they were overruled. There was (and perhaps still is) a corrupt relationship between Boeing management and the FAA which allowed the 737Max to get a stamp of approval it should never have had. It's what happens when profit-making organisations (corporations) are allowed to get control of government.

Apparently the Russian version had designed the cockpit to be detachable in an emergency.

How do you figure that?

Disinformation

Just a reminder of past heroes

This and Columbia burning up on re-entry. Space travel is always high risk. I think people started to think it was routine.

And a week later, the kids were telling Challenger jokes to their teachers.

This wasn't about giving a good show. NASA didn't want another delay, since Congress was about to review their budget request, so they had to look good. Morton Thiokol didn't want another delay, since they were in talks to renew their supply contract with NASA. This was _all about the money._

Feynman?

I remember when I was a child they sent up chickens, dogs, monkeys. They didn't give a shyte about anything.

I think people were fascinated with her BECAUSE she was a civilian. There was a lot of excitement about a civilian going into space. It made space travel seem possible for all of us in the near future. I read avidly about all the crew members before the launch, and admired them all, but as a teacher and a young mother, I identified most with Ms. McAuliffe. I knew I'd be way too terrified to go, but I envied and admired her.

You had a lounge at your house?

@@Gobo--Fraggle Sure, you call them family rooms I believe in America. Where the main TV is located, sofa you call them couch, Dad's music system etc. Don't you still call them that?

A cruel lie, irrefutably debunked.