The Most Watched Disaster In Human History | What Went Wrong: Countdown to Catastrophe 

The engineers explaining how the rubber in the o-rings actually work, using everyday examples, was really amazing to listen to. Being able to tie an extremely technical idea to a more simple one always helps me understand easier. Super cool of them to take the time to explain.

I was 19 years old, and my dad was almost 56. The same age I am now. I remember getting up early with him to see the launch, and when I saw the white smoke going to different directions I turned to him and said," it wasn't supposed to look like that was it? Dad?" And he said," no honey. They're gone." My dad passed away at 93 over the summer, and I can still remember this as clear as day. Rest in peace to all of the challenger crew and rest in peace forever, Dad. ❤

Think this is the first time I have been made aware that the crew were alive after the explosion. That they all most likely died instantly on impact. Those last few minutes must have been horrific for the crew.

This wasn't a disaster, it was criminal negligence.

This happened on my 24th birthday. It was the first event in my lifetime that was one of those, "I remember exactly where I was when this happened". I was over at my friend's house, picking her up so we could go riding our horses together and her t.v. was on while I waited for her to get ready. Of course the launch was on every channel and I was interested in it because of the teacher on board. I remember so distinctly calling out to my friend (who was in her bedroom), "OMG COME HERE!!! It just blew up!!!". She had no idea what I was talking about so she came walking in, and we both just sat there on her couch, holding each other's hands as we watched it again and again and just kept whispering, "Is this really happening?". I'm 61 years old, and it was the only time in my life that something shocked me to the bones like that... until 9/11.

I’ve always believed that the officials at NASA should’ve been charged with a crime for what happened to Challenger. They were made aware over and over again about this issue and how deadly it could be but they willfully ignored it. They put the lives of those astronauts in danger simply because they wanted to stay on schedule. They really should’ve been charged with manslaughter or negligent homicide. What they did was so willfully negligent that the deaths of the astronauts should’ve been viewed as a crime.

I was home that day with the flu and was channel surfing, came onto CNN almost an hour before launch time. I thought I would be lucky to get this historic moment on video. I put a brand new tape into the VCR and hit the Record button. I got everything before, during, and after the disaster, including President Reagan's address about the disaster later that night. I still have this tape, still as clear as the day it happened, and it has been transferred to DVD as well. Such a sad and shocking event. My then-husband called a few minutes after it happened to find out if it were true. Through tears I told him it was, and I was taping it. He watched the video (still recording) when he got home that afternoon. I went back to work 2 days later, and the mood was very somber and sad. RIP Challenger 7. Never forget. I play the DVD on the anniversary every year. (Jan Griffiths).

Almost 40 years later and this still gets to me

I remember being a freshman in HS, and we all gathered to watch the challenger launch... the first teacher was on board. But i will never forget the crying, screams, and general heartbreaking feeling as we watched it explode.

A suit executive should never veto an engineer. The executives were worried about losing the contract. The engineers were worried about losing human lives.

They put a team together afterwards to see what went wrong. They didn’t need a team they already knew in advance what the problem was. No one wanted to admit it. Putting a team together was the cover up. Bless this man and his integrity.

I was an employee of Morton Thiokol at the time and I was working on O-ring test blocks. I don't like the phrase "engineering disaster" because it should be "a management disaster"

I watched this live while at work in Whittier, California . . . The whole office froze. Money and Power - Always the prime motivators, showed it's face again. Until we can balance safety into that equation, it will go on . . . RIP, our seven heros...

My english teacher in junior highschool actually was a student of Krista McAuliffe. She was always choked up on the anniversary of the disaster. I'm also glad NASA was taken to account for this, they 100% caused this accident, no doubt.

This was not just a negligent act where someone didn't perform up to standard, these deaths were the direct result of a reckless disregard for human life-- a deliberate choice to place others in unjustifiable and preventable peril. They not only knew about the danger, in no uncertain terms, but they knew that there was a high degree of likelihood that their actions would result in serious injury, or in this case death. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens often in bureaucracy; decisions get made based on someone protecting their power base and position rather than accomplishing the stated mission. Often times the person who is making a decision where bad results are highly likely may believe that they can blame any undesirable results on someone else-- a scapegoat or even diffuse the blame among many people; this kind of thing can clearly highlight individuals who are not afraid of doing the wrong thing, but only in getting caught or blamed. Unfortunately a bureaucracy is inevitable in government, elsewise executive functions wouldn't get done; regretfully in this case the necessary evil of bureaucracy resulted in tragedy.

A friend of who used to work for NASA launch control in the early 80'a told me about one of the boosters having an catastrophic o ring failure 3 missions before the Challenger disaster when a 6ft by 9 inch section of the booster seal burned through, but it just happened to be facing the opposite of the fuel tank- so they just kept launghing without bothering to redesigning the seals !!?? PERFECT-

The underlying problem is whistle blowers lose their careers, and their reputation is damaged beyond repair. This was true with Alaska flight 261 when an engineer blew the whistle to the FAA over safety concerns at Alaskan Airlines. He was proven right with the tragic loss of 261, yet no management types were ever prosecuted for their gross negligence.

I was woken by my mother because it was the end of the xmas holidays in NZ and we watched in disbelief the coverage of the disaster all day.

Why have engineers if you don’t listen to them?

And the guy who told the truth was demoted... This dynamic occurs repeatedly in organizations large and small...

Challenger actually survived the conflagration we saw on TV (which was deemed not combustive). Rather, it broke apart afterward due to tumbling at Mach 1+ speeds, for which it was never designed for. This is why the crew initially survived the conflagration we saw on TV and activated their emergency oxygen packs. Specifically, the controls belonging to Onizuka and Resnik had been manually switched to the ON position when the cockpit was recovered. There was no accidental way for this to happen. These are all official findings noted in the Rogers Investigation Commission Report.

I got exactly 2 seconds in the this video, and my face just fell flat when I saw the "Challenger" monicker.... I witnessed this live, on TV because I had the flu and was at my Grandparents' house when it happened, and had to explain, as an 11 year old child, I immediately said when the booster blew up as we watched, "That's not right..." "Nannie, Papa, that's not what's supposed to happen," to people 2 generations separated from me. I still look back like it hurt to do so, as they had seen the moon landing 6 years before I was even born... Nannie said I started crying about 10 minutes later.

As much as I respect these engineers for standing up I still can't believe not one person said "look, when rubber gets cold it looseses it's resiliency. If rubber is cold it will not bounce back."

The sad thing here, apart from this actual tragedy of course, is that while NASA learned this lesson, they only did so for a short time, before they fell back into their old habits, and in 2002, they lost another seven crew members on Columbia through _"normalization of deviance"_ - in that case, knowing about the tendency for chunks of foam insulation to break off during launch, but not investigating or modelling the possible consequences. Now I know the private space haters will not like to hear this, but one of the reasons why the SpaceX Falcon 9 team has such a good safety record (so far) is because they have a philosophy that their engineers are to be insulated/isolated from pressure from the bean counters - it is the engineering team who have the final say on launch go no/go decisions. This is why it so often happens that their launches are aborted at the last moment. That might be annoying, but its why they have (as of today) a 257/259 (99.23%) success rate for Falcon 9.

The tradgedy had nothing to do with exploration and discovery but was yet another failure by administrators to follow the rules. The decision makers for this launch in contradiction to previously agreed no-go points should still be serving a prison sentence for murder of 7 people.

I remember this so well. It was indeed so sad day & the loss of seven amazing people who was just irreplacable. I was watching from our home in Norge then & although so many year ago, once brought back to mind, feels just like the yesterday. May these 7 people RIP. Tusen takk for sharing.

Engineers should be able to override managers. Managers overriding engineers is a recipe for this kind of disaster.

Absolutely astonishing, how much catastrophe was caused by group-think, dismissal of expert opinion and putting task-schedules ahead of people's lives! I was motivated to read Professor Feynman's "What Do You Care What Other People Think? - and learned the value of holding that same attitude in my own life.

"I don't care if it blows up, as long as it's not my fault." -NASA employee 👏...👏....👏....😳😑

They should have rolled another shuttle out the next day loaded it with NASA executives and launched on an even colder day. That would have fixed NASA management...

Watch this live in high school USA. The media had hyped the 1st teacher astronaut. Adult at work were not watching this people didn't care about this stuff. It was nothing like 9/11. But if you say most watch by children than yes most classrooms across America had this on.

Travelling into space is inherently risky, as so much can go wrong, even if missions are perfectly planned and executed. However, what is unforgivable is to become "risk accepting" at the detriment of the crew and the mission. Safety always and every time has to be priority number 1 - nothing is more important than this when sending astronauts into space. We also need to remember all those astronauts & cosmonauts who lost their lives in pushing the boundaries for the human race - they are the real heroes who gave their lives for the good of mankind. RIP folks, and fly high, very high.

I still vividly remember the morning this happened. A service coordinator in our office yelled out, "hey guys, the space shuttle just blew up". At first I thought she was kidding. As soon as I saw she wasn't, the first thing I said was, "Well, I guess they kept flying until an SRB finally failed". As more info came out, my work colleagues wondered how I was instantly so sure it was an SRB failure. I followed everything space related from the time I was in elementary school. At the time of the loss of Challenger, it was no big secret that the SRB's were a serious failure risk on launch, especially at low temperatures. Several years before Challenger, I had a cartoon in a space related publication that pointed some of this out. NASA was living on borrowed time with the entire shuttle design and many insiders knew it. Prior to the loss of Challenger, there were other missions that had near burn throughs of the "O" ring seals. I think either STS 8 or 9 was one of those near failures. NASA's handlin of the "O" ring issue was just like how NASA management continued to ignore heat tile damage on multpile launches right up until they lost a second shuttle on reentry. NASA engineers knew these problems needed fixing but they were overridden and silenced by get it done management.

I watched it from home I was 20. It took me a few minutes to even realize what happened. I was horrified. It seemed unreal. Love to all who witness Ed or lost someone in this traumatic event

Man it's been a while, I was at Lewis elementary in Iowa watching it live in the gym when this happened, tears me up and I was confused then. Now he just tears me up to see it again.

Always remember u our 7 space Heroes 💓💓💓💓💓

How no one went to prison is absolutely ridiculous

Wow, I remember this. I was in college, walking to class and I heard some other students talking about it as I passed. So, I skipped class and headed over to the Student Union where they had a TV room. Up to that point, the shuttle program had been safe, almost routine, so I was shocked by what happened. Years later with Columbia, I was no longer shocked.

That was heart breaking to see!!

Next up how NASA did it again in 2003 with Columbia based on all the same dynamics that brought Challenger down killing another group of astronauts...

R.I.P. Allan McDonald.

I was working for a electrical contractor on a condominium on the beach in satellite beach florida the day this happened... I was on the 10th floor Working in one of the units. I had seen the launches before So I didn't go out to Watch . after finishing up what I was doing. I walked out onto the walkway. And I saw traffic pulled over on The side of A1A And people out of their cars looking up toward the north.. Then I looked down and saw a big crowd of construction workers in front of the condo looking up to the Northeast.. I walked down to The north end Of the walkway And looked up and saw the big swirling plumes from the solid rocket boosters.. I knew something had happened. I looked below me and saw 4 guys… I yelled down to them what had happened And they yelled back that the shuttle had blown up. Sad day in history.

It’s outrageous that Challenger launched.

Wow, this made me tear up. I was 10 years old. When we returned from lunch, our substitute teacher said he had bad news for us -we thought it was about our teacher who had been out sick. It was not. He showed us video of the shuttle launch and explained what happened. Honestly, we could have done without the coverage with no mental health support, but alas, it was the 80s, and everyone just expected us to buck up. I was numb. I was just glad it wasn't about our teacher. But it was about someone else's teacher...I felt very sad for those children. Completely avoidable tragedy.

Growing up with imperial units makes it difficult to comprehend metric units. Pausing and converting units from metric to imperial while watching videos like this is difficult. I wish they implemented a simple text overlay for Americans who were taught imperial as we grew up.

I was watvhing it when that happened to them!! 😢😢😢

I was in the 6th grade in Mrs. Greenwalds' English class watching the shuttle go up on TV .... I'm 47 years old now

My grandmother and I watched this together, we both loved aircraft, she retired from Lockheed. We both commented at the same time, it looks like it’s lifting off slower than usual.

Not only was this disaster criminally negligent, costing 7 lives of people who depended on NASA doing their utmost to keep the mission safe, but how many more suffered because of this negligence? The astronauts' family and friends, NASA personnel who knew what was wrong and were powerless to do more than they did to alert the higher ups, and the millions of children here and abroad who witnessed the whole thing on live tv? And honestly, I feel for the poor teachers who watched one of their own die on live tv, then were left trying to help the children in their care cope with the trauma. What an awful mess we all went through because some people at NASA placed their precious launch schedule about the safety of their astronauts. 😨

Did you know, Big Bird from Sesame Street was going to be on the Challenger but instead they sent a school teacher

Interesting video

Things did not always go right on other flights , so it would be more accurate to say it was during 2 flights that things went disastrously wrong. At the time the Shuttle was conceived and approved, it was planned that every American launch would be using the Shuttle and expendable rockets were to cease. This was a very foolish idea, as the Shuttle had not even been proved to be able to carry out the number of launches planned for it and delays would only increase the pressures on the Shuttle to deliver. The Shuttle was not able to launch nearly as often as had been advertised and promised, and thus those pressures on the Shuttle grew stronger and stronger every passing year. Those pressures meant that NASA management became so desperate to launch that they were willing to press on with those launches despite warnings from engineers like Roger Bojoly. Management knew they were taking a huge gamble with astronaut lives, so much so, that launching on the Shuttle effectively meant each crew was playing a game of Russian roulette. The bulletin was in the firing chamber of the gun on the 2 flights that ended in disaster. Professional astronauts were well aware of the risks but non-professional crew members were deceived into thinking that flying on the Shuttle was just as easy and safe as flying on a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, with tragic consequences for Christa McAuliffe and Gregory Jarvis.

I was in science class in middle school. I remember kids just walking out of classrooms, everyone silent and stunned. Teachers crying. I think we may have gone home for the day.

The anticipation two years after to retry a launch must’ve been agonising

I was in the 4th grade when this happened. We didn't find out about it until after lunch when our teacher came in crying and told us what happened. We lived just outside of Houston at the time.

This had to have been filmed BEFORE we lost Columbia. THAT was the death knell of the space shuttle program. Oh, and it's spelled Christa, FYI.

I was in elementary school, in Florida, and watched the shuttle explode with my very eyes. I will never forget that day. It's as clear as 9/11 in my memory. 😢

The highest level managers and engineers over-ruled the strong recommendations of the employees that were doing their job and that included the weather conditions at liftoff. Add to that all of the school children watching live on TV, with a school teacher as part of the 7-person crew. Tragedy of multiple, dramatic proportions.

There is a great documentary on this called challenger: a rush to launch

No launch below 53 degrees. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that.

This was extremely sad 😢 I’ll never forget this. Since then I have witnessed mega Rockets 🚀 launched, as I live near NASA. It’s now 2023🇺🇸

I so remember watching being in SHOCK. I couldn't believe it was real....

So who was charged with manslaughter? Nobody? But corporations are people, my friend.

I would think that Pearl Harbor Invasion has been watched more. Even Atomic Bombs in Japan were a bigger more watched disaster. However, Challenger was a disaster

I’m 71yo retired Corporate Pilot and was based in NY. On a cross country trip to LA I was lucky enough to see a test of a solid rocket booster over Utah. I’m at 36,000 feet and I could swear I felt our aircraft shake. Maybe it was my imagination but I prefer to think it was real.

34:33 they often asked me... But did the astronaut know to ask the right question?

I was 6, but I remember it really clearly. I was on the floor at my cousins house, we both had chicken pox, while we all watched it happen. I remember my uncle sitting on the couch and just saying, "oh my God". What really warped my mind was years later when they announced that the crew most likely lived through the explosion and died on impact between the pod and the ocean. 😢

I was at lunch in 6th grade the day this happened. I was watching it going up then the 'puff' as I call it. Following the puff cloud came 'Y' shaped split. I was confused for a few minutes until the principal came on the intercom and told us the shuttle had exploded. All classes were suspended and we were sent to study hall until they could arrange for the buses to get us or notify our families.

@21:30 this has got to be one of the best descriptions of what a launch would feel like I've ever heard

Space shuttle takeoffs used to be such a religious experience that people would actually countdown for them and kids were genuinely excited about it and paying attention.

I was 17 at the time and we all watched it happen live at school that morning. There were a couple minutes of stunned silence. It took a while to wrap your mind around what just happened.

1:54 Disgusting! ….smh 🤦‍♂️ Thank goodness people have learned (for the most part), any situation that can turn catastrophic, can’t have any minor detail brushed aside for stupid SCHEDULING !

These people who overruled the engineers should have been told "Ok. But realize one thing; if the shuttle explodes due to the O ring failure because of the cold temperatures, and these people die you WILL be criminally charged and prosecuted and you WILL do 25 years prison time. Are you SURE you want to overrule these engineers, who have told you the shuttle will explode, if you try to launch in these cold temperatures? Here's your ONE chance to decide what's most important in your life." Edit I guarantee you they would have a different perspective come launch day

8th grade here when it happened. Still sad.

As technical as it was it was a marvelous feat of engineering. Nothing has come close to it since. The Buran Energia was definitely a better design. To bad it lost its financing.

Every bad event has an “I told you so” guy who proudly speaks about making the safest of possible bets.

1986 was not a good year! Late January 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. Then later in spring, April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl went out of control and exploded. The Cold War was still continuing. Both Super Power countries suffered greatly!

I was a kid growing up in Orlando florida leading up to the challenger explosion .my next door neighbor was a NASA electrical engineer for years working his way up to the 2nd in command at Cape Canaverals Kennedy Space Central .the Kennedy crew were in charge of everything to getting the shuttle off the ground and once it made liftoff everything switches over to Houston making them in complete control once the shuttle is the air .my neighbors name was either Peter Minderman .i wanted to say it was Donald Minderman but about positive it was Peter .if any one on here was actually a Nasa employee and have heard of Mr Minderman please let me kno .i do kno he passed away back some years ago but think his son Donald Minderman my childhood best friend followed in his fathers footsteps and was a engineer for NASA

I was only 4 on this day, in preschool. My brother was watching, like all school age kids were that day. His teacher was actually one of the finalists in the program. He was in 3rd grade. I didn’t see the launch, that I remember, until I was an adult. But remember Christmas the month before, being cold and it snowing at Disney World. I’m sure my parents left the TV off that day, bad enough my brother watched it…why relive it?

I think you meant to say: The Second Most Watched Disaster in Human History. The 9/11 attacks has definitely surpassed that.

I cried for days. Then it happened again, and I cried for even more days.

In 1986, they didn’t have immediate counseling at schools, etc. School was in session next day and there was a brief assembly to watch Pres. Reagan and we sang some patriotic songs plus Amazing Grace. Then we returned to class as usual.

It was tragic, horrific to watch. I couldn’t sleep for aweek

It is remarked at 21:00 that the shuttle weighed 20,000 metric tons. Surely that is 2,000 tons, AT MOST.

OOOPPS ?? It was always the MONEY and the HELL with people's LIVES - GOOD JOB, NASA !!

I was born when it blew up

“I don’t mind if the Challenger blows up as long as it’s not my fault”. Ummmmm… WTF!!!!!!

I remember this day very well this happened a day after my 10th birthday i was at school at Hyde Park Elementary School in Jacksonville Florida My dad was at work at Navel Air Station Cecil Field just west of Jacksonville He recalls standing on the roof of his Squadron Hanger and he saw the entire event unfold he told me he watched the shuttle explode and i do remember it was freezing that morning my mom had to bundle me up before she sent me off to school and after the tragedy happened the Principal came on the school intercom to tell the entire school the breaking news

As a gov. safety manager, this is almost textbook disaster: time pressure AND cavalier leadership. I remember watching in 1st grade, it was a trip…

So much warning. Inexcusable. This was money over lives.

Wasnt it an o ring costing mere few dollars that failed due to the cold temperatures and was warned about but the pressures to launch after previous delays Typical nasa complacency

Looking back, it's actually insane they even lat that teacher on board. Is there any record that someone from NASA sat down with her and literally said, "this is rocket science, but it's new rocket science and you could possibly die on this trip"? I would imagine she was surrounded by Yes Men who did all they could to ensure her this was a routine thing and that danger was minimal since they needed the PR of a teacher going to space.

STILL MY FAVORITE LAUNCH REALLY WENT OFF WITH A BANG !

Basic idea that the shuttle had no parameters or restrictions for air temperature at launch prior to the DAY BEFORE is wild. Probably was due to Florida having warm temps for all the other launches. Anywhere else would’ve had temp parameters.

Isn’t the most watched disaster 911? That was surely the most watched event of all time

A big, brittle rubber band destroyed the most complex vehicle ever built by man.

I read that at the start of the Shuttle it eas estimated by scientist that it would be 98 percent successful. Of the 135 missions, two failed. That's about two percent.

There are a few relevant contextual issues. First Reagan wanted to showcase the teacher in space farse the evening of the launch. And Thiokol within a few days were going into negotiations on a contract extension with NASA to continue to manufacture the solid rocket boosters. It's an obscenity that one of the upper level NASA executives that pressed Thiokol managers to overrule their engineers was promoted after this debacle ...

Alan McDonald = Integrity

I was In The third grade watching the lift off in an assembly…Didn’t realize what I was actually watching or fully understood..I got they died and went home and watched all day..My little sister told me it was ok because they were already close to heaven 😢