On Live TV: The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster 1986 | Documentary

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for watching, check out me other bits! My reading recommendation: amzn.to/3ry77Xl Outro song: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWjEnZdogbeFsNk Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult Merch: plainly-difficult.creator-spring.com Twitter:twitter.com/Plainly_D

[@gavinminion8515]

Hi, I need to correct one of your statements - at 2:10 you mention Koyannisqatsi. This was Godfrey Reggio's 1982 work and was filmed before the challenger disaster. I believe the footage he used was of another failed launch of a sattelite. I will try and get details.

[@gavinminion8515]

Found this: "During its maiden voyage in May 1962, a Centaur upper stage rocket, mated to an Atlas booster, exploded 54 seconds after launch, engulfing the rocket in a huge fireball. Investigation revealed that Centaur’s light, stainless-steel tank had split open, spilling its liquid-hydrogen fuel down its sides, where the flame of the rocket exhaust immediately ignited it." Not sure where the quote is from, but the video footage is online and matches Koyaanisqatsi.

[@meinkamph5327]

When I was in third grade, Every student watched the launch in school, We all watched and witnessed as it was happening. Everyone started making jokes immediately. Here's one.. (NASA--Need--Another--Seven--Astronauts)

[@Iffy350]

cutting edge at setting us back 60 years

[@Milnoc]

Thanks for confirming early on your choice of background music in the opening wasn't an accident. I immediately thought of Koyaanisqatsi's failed rocket test sequence by its similarity.

[@bandontherun74]

My uncle was in engineering school in the early 90s and told me about an assignment he was given. His class was split into groups and told to look over all the data related to high speed engines that are raced in the desert to break world speed records. Each group was asked, "Would you continue to use these engines for further tests, or would you do a costly redesign for better results?" My uncle told me every group said they would keep using the engines, because the data was good except for some minor performance problems when the weather was super cold (which would be unusual for a desert but not uncommon). Their professor then said "Congratulations everyone, you just launched Challenger."

[@patrickdix772]

To me this seems like the professor didn't set up the question right, or there's some changes in the retelling of it. The SRBs weren't in need of a redesign for better performance, they were in need of a redesign for safety. If the question was phrased like "There are some risks of fuel leakage during cold weather", rather than just performance problems at cold temperatures it'd be more accurate to the disaster. There's just huge differences between "we can get better performance with a redesign" and "if we don't redesign we risk the vehicle blowing up". I know it's the point to get the students to think about the consequences of ignoring risks in borderline cases, but I personally dislike when a question doesn't give full / accurate information and then penalizes you for not knowing that info (when you cannot ask for or get the info). The reason why I hate this is that my highschool offered a forensic science class as an optional class, and the final lab was a simulated crime scene. We were supposed to look for evidence and determine what happened, but were never told that there was a entire separate room and body not included in the simulated crime scene.

[@ichwill7536]

​@patrickdix772 yeah it's a lazy comparison

[@50shadesofbeige88]

​@@patrickdix772agreed.

[@skyspydude1]

@patrickdix772, we had a similar assignment in an engineering course where it was similarly framed with racing engines, but with head gasket failures leading to engines blowing up. I agree it's not a perfect comparison and any time I tell the story someone inevitably says something similar to "It's not the same/there was missing information", but it 100% did its job and I think about that lecture almost every time I'm doing any sort of safety analysis.

[@TickleFingers]

Not even REMOTELY similar! I would have stood up and said congratulations, you just lost my respect and from this point forward I question your ability to teach effectively. If I was paying for that, I would have been utterly disappointed in my investment and would probably have looked for another school.

[@EarthSurfer]

A very sad day for me. My roommate and I were there. We had been sleeping in my truck for a few days waiting to see the launch. We drove the 12+ hours back to Starkville in relative silence. As engineering students in our final semester, we had a grasp of the scale of the failure. The findings from the Challenger Report have always vividly impacted the safety of my designs, and once led me to a “career limiting move” when I refused to be quiet about a plausible life safety risk that my corporate management was not disclosing to a customer.

[@amrastheluckywoof5524]

You should have been given a raise and a promotion instead of being "career-limited". Yes, it may have hurt sales, but you instead may have saved lives that day. I have a great respect for such a move. Well done.

[@BelindaMuller]

Thank you. On behalf of the uncountable souls who unwittingly continue, void of personal tragedy or loss due to design safety, thank you. I wish all engineers thought and behaved with such integrity.

[@Chris-hx3om]

Stockton Rush as entered the conversation!

[@rsutherland76]

thank you

[@TheLadderman]

As an engineering student myself, I can imagine how world shaking that would have been. It's a crazy situation that fortunately a lot of people learned lessons from. Unfortunately it seems to take massive failures such as this to bring to light the kinds of bad practices that cause disasters. Had this disaster not happened, these bad practices would have no doubt continued until some other disaster of equal or greater magnitude occurred.

[@chloehennessey6813]

An engineer knew this would happen. He begged them not to launch. I still can’t believe these people weren’t held accountable.

[@nathanhosea489]

Many people begged them. They didn't listen

[@thesvtguy]

“The world is just about to witness a terrible disaster- introducing astound broadband!” Worst time for an ad

[@kai325d3]

Nobody knew anything. It was all predictions. Given the Shuttle has given minimal problems so far and other engineers were confident that they would be OK, of course nobody would have stopped the launch. Takes like yours is absolutely stupid

[@captainnutnut6077]

Roger Boisjoly was the most notable objector.

[@allainangcao28]

When you are a billion dollar corporation and have friends in high places, you can sweep anything under the rug...

[@STARRY_SCARAB]

I wasn’t alive to see this. It’s horrifying even just to hear about second-hand. The fact that the captain said “uh-oh” before it began to break up is weirdly heartbreaking. Like he knew it was going to happen. Fly high, Challenger crew. To the stars.

[@charlesfaure1189]

Many, many people experience that moment every day--in vehicles, in the workplace, in crosswalks and on sidewalks, in hospitals and in doctors' offices. It was no worse for him than for them. Consider that.

[@annetteslife]

We're you alive when the Columbia disaster happened?

[@WhiteWolf-lm7gj]

​@@charlesfaure1189You say that like you think that's better. You know it's not, right?

[@allisonjohnson6399]

I was 8 years old and watched it on TV. We were home because of a teacher workday. It was harrowing to say the least.

[@nobodyspecial115]

I wasn't alive for this either but every year this was brought up at my school. The high school was directly across the street from the only Michelin plant that specifically made the tires for the space shuttles, so they were a big part of our schools identity and a lot of teachers had joined the competition for the teacher in space program. Some had even met the lady on the Challenger.

[@FloydYESterZep]

What I remember most about this was how the cameras kept focusing on Christa McAuliffe's parents for several minutes right after the explosion. It was heartbreaking. Why the news director thought this was appropriate for live international TV is beyond me. But you could see their happiness transition to first confusion, then fear, and then absolute and pure devastation. They had no idea that their complete emotional rollercoaster ride was being shared with the entire world.

[@theoriginaldylangreene]

The media have always been disgusting sensationalists who would ride roughshod over ethics and morality for "the scoop". Nothing has changed.

[@RCAvhstape]

Yes, I remember commenting on that with my friends at the time. Christa's dad was smiling for a while because he didn't realize what he was witnessing yet. I thought that was pretty cruel of the news lizards to do that to her family.

[@chicken29843]

In a capitalist society profit comes before people that is literally just how our society works. To maintain capitalism that is a requirement. We already voted in people who have legally absolved corporations from any ethical obligations. Why are people complaining? It's not like any of you fucks actually want to change anything.

[@mwhyte1979]

Your one of the few that remembers that. I was stationed at Pease AFB in Portsmouth NH which is about forty miles from where Christa taught school. I was thinking the same thing as I saw how the camera seemed to focus on her parents.

[@REIDAE]

typical news media behaviour. Scum then, still scum now.

[@JCBro-yg8vd]

The saddest thing is, NASA ended up making a similar mistake roughly seventeen years later with Columbia. They knew there were problems with foam debris strikes damaging the shuttles, but they chose to ignore them in favor of getting as many shuttle launches in as they could.

[@WobblesandBean]

Yup. They learned nothing from this. It's pure arrogance, that's all there is to it. It's not any of THEIR loved ones on board after all, so no need for caution.

[@D0RYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY]

I watched that live on TV as a child. I was so scared and confused.

[@emileeweir7773]

And Columbia couldn't even check the damage because of their payload/military security policy.

[@johndc2998]

What is a " foam debris strike " ? How does foam damage metal...

[@JCBro-yg8vd]

@@johndc2998 A piece of foam from the solid fuel tank broke off during launch and struck the shuttle, damaging its carbon-carbon based heat shield. During re-entry, the damage to the shield enabled hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the shuttle and cause it to disintegrate.

[@joebob227]

I was in 2nd grade watching this live on the school's satellite feed we had of this. I can't stress how huge the 'Teacher in Space' pull was to have students watching the launch, so millions of kids my age and older all got to witness this live because of that. It's one of the first events I can vividly recall.

[@mommy2libras]

I would likely remember this very well regardless but I think the reason it really stuck out to me was because just a year or so before, our kindergarten class had taken a field trip to see the Enterprise. NASA was sending it to New Orleans to be shown at the World's Fair (84, I think) and shipping it was tricky because usually it was moved on the back of a 747 (I think, I may be wrong) but due to the weight, wherever it landed needed a very long runway. The issue came from not having a truck or rail car big enough to get it from the closest airport with a proper runway to where it would be shown but in Mobile Alabama, there's an old air force base turned airport/aerospace complex that was also right by a deep water port (which New Orleans also has) so it could be shipped directly there on a barge in just a couple of hours. We were all so excited to go see it. And a year and a half later, we're all excited to see this launch and saw disaster instead.

[@wildgr33n]

i was in 2nd grade for 9/11 and similar; they shut down the schools and had talks with all of us and even turned on the news so we were watching what was happening. also one of my most vivid memories as a kid.

[@NeverlandSystemZor]

I was in 3rd grade and had the same experience. Watching it live and cheering for the launch... then the terror and sheer horror of the incident. I remember all of us filing out of the auditorium and being sent home, school cancelled, and walking home bawling my eyes out.

[@JamesSmith-qs4hx]

I wonder if she was a woke lefty?

[@nathanhosea489]

​@@JamesSmith-qs4hx "Wokeness" didn't exist back then

[@SuperTrb0]

My dad was part of a helicopter crew out of Patrick Air Force base that was sent out post accident. They couldn’t fly into the area for some time as debris were falling for awhile after the explosion. The search area was massive. They and other crews were flying missions assisting in the recovery for months. I was in second grade at the time. I remember my dad leaving early in the morning and not coming home until late at night. This seemed to go on forever.

[@squillz8310]

Those last 2 sentences are heartbreaking...

[@SunBear69420]

Me mum was hermoine grangers shuttlecraft commander

[@kupokinzyt]

My sister is a crackhead

[@TheBoringLlama]

@@kupokinzyt we know

[@Jules_73]

I went to school with Christa McAuliffe’s relative Kirsten. We were in 8th grade and watched the launch live in our school library. I’ll never forget watching in disbelief and seeing Kirsten’s reaction. It made it so much more personal and traumatic as a kid seeing such a great loss.

[@MrChopsticktech]

So sorry for your loss.

[@luminaether]

Richard Feynman was, in my opinion, the best scientific communicator that has been. If anyone is interested in watching a great storyteller, and doesn't mind being surprised that they have a general understanding of an advanced physics concept all of a sudden, then look him up. There are numerous lectures on KZbin. It's people like him who are able to convince an entire nation that certain scientific pursuits are worthy of huge efforts to understand and explore, the sciences need more people like him.

[@thesquatchdoctor3356]

As long as you don't mind him sneaking off with your wife after the conference

[@jacekatalakis8316]

Wasn't he a regular at the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures for quite a few years at one point? I forget if it was him but they always seemed to have several guests and lecturers who had that quality. I learned more from those lectures than actual science lessons

[@cygil1]

@@thesquatchdoctor3356 He liked the ladies but I'm not aware of him ever doing anything with married women. He would turn up to a conference with a stripper on each arm, of course.

[@thesquatchdoctor3356]

@ cygil1 Here's an interview with Charlie Munger where he talks about Feynman going after the wives of his own undergraduate students, so 18-24 year-olds directly under his authority. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIDHeZawnruVg9E A genius to be sure, but not someone who I would want in my life or at my university

[@thigtsquare950]

Indeed Richard Feynman was a scientist, not a politician. He didn’t care about the feelings of management hence being at odds with Rodgers

[@DeaconG1959]

I worked at KSC at the tracking station there doing the pre-launch support the previous night. To say that it was cold in Florida was a serious understatement-our outside temperature gauge in the window in the ops area was pegged (the low was 27 degrees). My co-workers and I were looking at NASA TV and seeing ice flowing down like waterfalls off the service structure and going "They can't be thinking about launching today...can they?" I went home at 8 and crashed, but I did notice that I didn't hear the rumble of the shuttle going off as I normally did. I woke up that afternoon figuring they had postponed the launch, turned on the TV and saw multiple replays of the explosion...followed by my neighbors hearing me cursing profusely. Worse...it was my birthday. I didn't celebrate it for many years because of this.

[@ptonpc]

I can't imagine how that must have felt.

[@the_expidition427]

Its bullshit

[@Aaron-zu3xn]

they were told it's too cold the o-rings won't make it but thiokol thought if they delayed the launch nasa would scrap the program and cut funding

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

I'm so sorry about your birthday. Many years later, in 2011, I was watching STS-130, Endeavour, go up. The first night we showed up it was so cold. Being from the frozen North, my husband and I were more perturbed by staying up all night than by the cold. At about 4AM they called it. Too cold. We came back the next night to the same sort of cold. We were still ready for it, and glad that they hadn't put it off for weeks. An astronaut was there to talk over a loudspeaker about why they'd canceled. He said that in the old days, they would have just launched, "But after Challenger...well, we just don't do that anymore." Good call. It was amazing to witness. I was out on the lawn of the Kennedy Space Center. There was this awful scream before the launch, coming from behind us; apparently a woman sitting under a pine tree felt bark fall into her hair and heard a noise. She looked up to see a raccoon looking down at her. It was patiently waiting for us to leave so it could get into the trash. I've never been so tempted to find a bucket of popcorn to hand a creature so that we could both enjoy the show when the shuttle took off. I was glad that they started a conversation about the Challenger, though. People needed the reminder that we didn't need another preventable accident.

[@ItsJustLisa]

I’m a retired teacher. I’d have had a hard time celebrating my birthday too if it was January 28th. Being from the cold north (Wisconsin and Minnesota), I’d had a hard time fathoming ice in Florida. And since NASA had scrubbed launches over cold already, it’s maddening that the vehicle and rockets weren’t allowed to warm up sufficiently before launch.

[@GordonHouston-Smith]

Mismanagement and ego. Ignore the engineers and trust the bean counters. What could go wrong?

[@robert48044]

Space flight is inherently dangerous. Errors in judgement were made but the risk never goes away.

[@cartilagehead]

Reagan wanted a propaganda coup during the State of the Union address and the administration wasn’t going to settle for a delay. To think that it might have been Big Bird/Carol Spinney on that flight….would’ve traumatized those kids even more….

[@robert48044]

@@cartilagehead maybe using teachers as props isn't the best way to go either

[@eadweard.]

​@@cartilageheadI think these are more your own ideological preoccupations than anything else.

[@dozaarchives2225]

What was left out was the extreme pressure by the military to launch surveillance satellites.

[@Komainu959]

In the US Passport there is a quote from astronaut that perished in the Challenger Disaster. Ellison Onizuka "Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds.. to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation" During the Challenger flight Onizuka was carrying a soccer ball. It was given to him by the soccer team that I believe his daughter played for and was signed by the team. It somehow survived that massive explosion and was found. It made it's way to his daughter's school. A few decades later the ball was noticed by someone who had connections or was family of an astronaut and the ball eventually made it to the ISS! It spent 150+ days in orbit and was eventually returned back to the school where it sits to this day on display.

[@smoothbrainsquid1904]

😢😢😢😢😢

[@victoriaverse415]

I've always felt connected to the Challenger and Columbia disasters. At 6 I watched Challenger break up on live TV at my school. Then I was in East Texas and went outside to watch Columbia fly overhead. I saw that one with my own eyes. I will never forget either experience. Bear in mind, even after Challenger, I was a huge space and NASA fan. The movie Space Camp made me dream of going to space myself and I badgered my parents mercilessly to send me to Space Camp too. We never could afford it. I really appreciated your coverage of this disaster - you managed to condense a lot of information into a quick and understandable form. I truly hope you do address Columbia. Those two disasters fundamentally changed the American space program.

[@mommy2libras]

I was the same age when this happened and lived in Alabama. Because space camp was in Huntsville (and every 6th grade class got to go for an overnight trip to visit it- something we were all aware of from the day we started at that elementary school), every "space" thing was made a big deal to us. I remember even my 1st grade class realizing things weren't right when we saw this happen but teachers had no idea what to do. Just turned off the TV and tried to go about the day while dodging questions from 6 and 7 year olds, I guess.

[@katiesmith5149]

I could have written nearly the same comment, so could my husband. The space program was such a huge deal to us growing up. We are still fans of NASA and space travel.

[@lux.illuminaughty]

Space Camp! I think about that movie all the time.

[@nobodyspecial115]

The only Michelin plant that made the tires for the shuttles was directly across the street from my High School so we were taught about the shuttles every year around the anniversary of the Challenger disaster.

[@solandri69]

There are two other fatalities associated with Challenger. NASA halted shuttle flights after the disaster, but not the manufacture of the fuel for SRBs. The company hired to produce the oxidizer fuel - PEPCON - dutifully followed their contract and continued manufacturing ammonium perchlorate, and storing it on site. In May 1988 there was a fire at the plant, culminating in the stored fuel exploding. Injuring 372 and killing 2.

[@JoshuaTootell]

I think PD did a video on that.

[@WineScrounger]

@@JoshuaTootell Correct - kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppKbeGhnfNp4ZrM

[@takingthescenicroute1610]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppKbeGhnfNp4ZrM

[@lux.illuminaughty]

He did, it's kind of mind boggling

[@charlesfaure1189]

All for a program that never had the slightest chance of achieving its supposed design objectives. (The actual objectives were, for NASA, to keep its funding up after Apollo was over; and as a propaganda vehicle for politicians to use to garner public support. "Look how awesome America is under my administration!")

[@echo_soldier]

When I was watching NASA launch a rocket live, my mom walked in and asked "But what if something goes wrong?" I didn't really think about it until I remembered she had been alive during Challenger. Her class had submitted their teacher, but she hadn't been selected. They were all disappointed until they saw the Challenger break apart live on TV. I also had to analyze Ronald Reagan's speech on the disaster, and I highly recommend watching it. I wasn't alive at the time, and it made me realize just how bad this whole disaster was

[@johnopalko5223]

You mean the speech where he stole, uncredited, the first and last lines of John Gillespie Magee's poem _High Flight?_

[@WobblesandBean]

​@@johnopalko5223 Yup. Reagan was one of the worst human beings who ever lived, and a terrible president. He is the reason the US sucks so much now.

[@jonslg240]

Plainly Difficult & Curious Droid are obviously extremely related. The same way gang members are "related" =p They may not share bloodlines, but they share "lifeblood". They should collab, because they're both not only awesome, but they're the same kind of awesome.

[@jonslg240]

Btw imagine being 7 or 8 and your teacher, or one of the other teachers, got selected to go.. and you know them. The same way we all knew the other teachers in our grade + the other grades. You're so excited. You know someone who's going to outer space. You're watching INTENTLY. Then about a minute into it.. BOOM. That had to be devastating. For at least half of those kids. For the other half, that had to rock their world later on. But just imagine her family? That had to be LITERALLY unreal. That had to have seemed like that couldn't have just happened.. That had to have seemed like a conspiracy or something to them. Just imagine.. just put yourself in their shoes.. Now imagine being her, the teacher. You're definitely terrified but you're also trusting that they have this worked out to a science. Something could go wrong, but they've minimized the risk. They've done this plenty of times, so your risk is probably only 1/100ish.. Then you get on. Everything happens. It seems to be going normal. Then.. *BOOM*. She had to have thought the exact same thing I said earlier. "This cannot be real."

[@eddiehimself]

In my mechanical engineering degree, we were shown a video about Roger Boisjoly's warnings and how they were ignored as an example not to let safety concerns be left unsaid.

[@Kandralla]

I'm an ME and I work in a field where there aren't a lot of priors upon which to build best practices from. When you're working in new territory you really need to sit down and come up with your go, no-go criteria early in the project before emotions get involved and people's jobs are on the line for schedule and performance issues; you need to do this at the highest organizational level that you can, but if it's only you then it's only you. One of the critical no-go criteria is anyone in management asking for proof that operating outside of design conditions will cause a failure (as happened in challenger). By definition performance while operating outside of specifications is unknown; that doesn't mean that you can't do it, it just means everyone needs to sit down and come up with a sober justification of why it's okay. Having this list and sticking to it may require you to put your job at risk and that's the price you pay for being an engineer; your first priority is the health and safety of the general public, that being everyone who is not an engineer working on your project.

[@chrimony]

The sad thing is that after repeated warnings to management, they were finally convinced to get NASA on the phone the night before the launch to recommend against it. And it was very close to being scrubbed, but the pressure to get a launch, as well as secure future contracts, led to management to change their mind and recommend a launch. The saddest thing is that Roger had one last chance to speak up on that call, but he remained silent. For all his heroic efforts at trying to do the right thing, he came up short at the very end.

[@Kandralla]

@@chrimony To be fair they weren't going to listen at that point. NASA was fishing for the answer they wanted.

[@chrimony]

@@Kandralla They bullied them into the answer they wanted, but I don't think if they had stood their ground that NASA would have gone against them.

[@27retrodaze]

I was in elementary school in Orlando, FL at the time and the whole school went outside with our classrooms to watch the Shuttle go up as it was very visible from Orlando and i remember everyone cheering after liftoff and then seeing the twin trails from what i thought was the boosters and us kids not really understanding what had happened... Until all the teachers started to break down and cry... Yeah, it was one of those moments from my childhood ill never forget...

[@TheChibiGingi]

True story: When I was a wee child, my mom took my sister, me, and several Girl Scouts to the NASA Space Museum. I recall very little but I recall watching footage of the Challenger exploding and suddenly I became aware of the concept of death and its permanence. So the whole thing just sort of stuck with me from then on.

[@tjroelsma]

Solid video, John. But two factors haven't been mentioned, just as those same two factors were meticulously omitted from the investigation: 1. NASA had been through multiple rounds of budgetary cut-backs and money was really tight by then. 2. NASA was under huge political pressure to "show results" despite its budget having been severely cut over and over again. Part of the failure to replace the O-rings or redesign that part timely was simply for budgetary reasons: NASA couldn't afford to speed up the process. It was being done, but the new parts were simply going to arrive too late for this mission. Pretty much the same goes for the decision to launch: each time a spacecraft is lined up to launch and the launch has to be postponed due to weather or technical problems, it costs NASA huge amounts of money. And as money was already tight, it became more and more logical for NASA to take larger risks to avoid even harsher budget cuts. The political pressure is, like always, a very weird thing: the same politicians who'd ruthlessly cut NASA's budget over and over again, mainly because all the "sexy" (read: high profile missions that allow politicians to "score") missions had already been done and these missions, despite being important, were all pretty low profile, nevertheless demanded "results" and threatened with even more ruthless budget cuts. Politicians seem to have a very distinct disconnect between action/reaction and/or what theoretically works but always fails in practice. NASA was between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" and this also contributed to NASA taking higher and higher risks. The really sad thing is that the Challenger accident was due to an accumulation of relatively small problems, that on their own wouldn't have caused the mission to fail, but combined were enough to cause the mission to fail. - The O-rings and the part they were in were already being redesigned, but budgetary problems meant this mission had to launch with the "old" O-rings and part still in place. - The low temperature would definitely have influenced the integrity of the O-rings, but they would have just about held out on this mission (as proven by the fact that the solid fuel had plugged up the gap). - The wind gust John mentioned was the final straw that broke the camel's back. That caused a movement in the booster relatively to the tank and that dislodged the solid fuel "plug." The rest, as the saying goes, is history. So why did the commission meticulously avoid these financial/political factors? Well, for the obvious reason that the commissions first priority was to cover the asses of the politicians who had cut NASA's budget over and over again and yet demanded to see results from NASA in order to avoid further budget cuts. There was a lot of egg on politicians faces as to the cause of this accident, so they scapegoated NASA and damned it to take all the blame.

[@Tiberiansam]

THIS!

[@traymuse]

Wow. Thank you SO MUCH for adding this info to this conversation. I was in college when the disaster occurred, and never having heard this staggers me. It's really easy to put the incident on the venal eggheads at NASA, but I'm glad that's not the whole story.

[@andywomack3414]

I blame Reaganomics, and Reagan's "free enterprise in space" fantasy.

[@Alaryicjude]

@@andywomack3414, came to say this very thing.

[@atypicalmotorcycle752]

Please don't overlook the fact that the State Of The Union speech was scheduled for later that same day. The launch during adverse conditions was demanded specifically to wreath President Reagan in the glory of the same space program that was being starved of resources.

[@BadgerBadgerBadger28]

I always thought challenger only made one flight Thanks John for finally sorting this out

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@treyblaze22]

​@@PlainlyDifficultwhen you get a chance, look up Roger bosjely.

[@arcanondrum6543]

@@PlainlyDifficult That's not an accurate picture of the Crew Cabin, it was damaged but very recognizable. The CAUSE was this clown in the suit -> 20:41 that wanted a Live feed from Challenger in Space so that when he gave his State of the Union Address later that evening, he could distract Americans with patriotism while he made further Cuts to programs that helped people, to pay for the Tax Cuts he gave the wealthy and the corporations. Reagan left Office with a record deficit anyway, that was deliberate and it was spent on the Military-Industrial Complex. Look up "Challenger Soccer Ball" to get an idea of how good a Soccer Ball can look after surviving all of that PLUS extended submersion. I'm an ex-fan of the Shuttle Program. Space is very harsh whereas the spun glass heat shield, composed of many tiles of many shapes and sizes, was inappropriately delicate for the task. I'm not sure if only one tile was damaged on Columbia but just one missing or damaged would be enough to cause the disaster that happened to Shuttle Columbia. Apollo used 3 massive parachutes and an ocean splash down to cushion the deceleration. One of the actual Apollo capsules is in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington and it is dreadfully small (before growth hormones in the food we eat made people taller (and sicker)). The Shuttle crew cabin was designed to separate for cataclysmic events like this but sufficient Parachute canopy size would have erased any useful payload, even for just the crew.

[@CC3GROUNDZERO]

There is a well-written Wikipedia article about Space Shuttle Challenger. Did you never care to read up on the disaster at all?

[@Moose6340]

Also, Richard Feynman was a national treasure. Not just for this, but for his amazing ability to make science understandable while telling hilarious stories.

[@SFNightOwl]

Not just a communicator. Among other things he gave us the Feynman diagram in physics, a wonderful integration shortcut in math, and was a substantial contributor to the theoretical section of the atomic bomb. Just a genius.

[@mirskym]

@@SFNightOwl he won a Nobel Prize for those diagrams

[@svgalene465]

His two non-technical books,“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman” and “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” are recommended reading.

[@SFNightOwl]

@@mirskym Yes! He was a polymath and a genius. The Nobel only highlighted one of his many deserving talents.

[@SFNightOwl]

@@svgalene465 Both of these are excellent, easy, wonderfully amusing books. Great weekend reads. Shimmering glimpses into the mind of our "other Einstein". The one with a Queens accent 😀

[@AC-ih7jc]

Any time an engineering failure costs a life, it's a tragedy. But if someone paid the ultimate price, and you DIDN'T learn something you didn't already know, then the tragedy is even greater. RIP Challenger 7. ETA: "Challenger: A Major Malfunction" by Malcolm McConnell is also a very good book on the topic.

[@nicholashylton6857]

I was in high school at the time and asked my mother if I could stay home and watch the lauch but she said, "No". When I returned from school in the afternoon, my mother asked me if I heard the news. Jokingly, I said, "Did it explode or something?", and she confirmed my offhanded remark. I froze in place, dumbstruck at her words. I will never forget that moment.

[@hollyann988]

I was in elementary school, and the school had us all assembled in the cafeteria to watch this live. I remember the teachers were so excited. When the explosion happened I remember thinking it was so cool, all the smoke, but then teachers started crying and it took a bit for us kids to realize why the explosion was not a good thing. It's my first memory of being confused and upset at the same time.

[@ulbuilder]

Very similar situation for me. At first I thought oh, that's the side boosters separating. Then wait, where's the shuttle? Oh, that's what that big poof was.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

I was in 4th grade, and I was a space geek, so when the explosion happened my big nerdy grin dropped off immediately and I almost threw up, because I *knew* we'd just watched 7 astronauts die. My teacher turned off the TV immediately and our school's principal made an emergency announcement. I think that was when half the class started crying.

[@rlsmith3105]

I was in high school when this happened. I remember being forced to watch this footage over and over throughout the day until I said to one my teachers - I am tired of watching these people die repeatedly and it hurts to know that their families are being subjected to this repeatedly too. My teacher was shocked because it apparently never occurred to them that having every classroom sit in a darkened state with a TV tuned into the news footage for a full day of classes would be detrimental to a child's mental health. After that, the TV was switched off and we went back to learning the subject we were supposed to.

[@solandri69]

Time and Newsweek put a picture of the explosion on their covers. U.S. News and World Report was lauded for putting a picture of the crew on their cover instead.

[@insanejughead]

I was a freshman in high school when the towers fell. I get so utterly sick when I think about the footage being repeated then, and the number of times I saw the same people falling to their deaths.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

I was in forth grade (I think?) and there were a few squeals from the otherwise stunned silent class... and the TV's were immediately switched off, while the teachers gave us art assignments and had meetings in the office... There was a little more talking about the perils of pioneering and the nature of exploring being inherently dangerous, no matter how "good" or safe the people doing it are. We talked a little more about what it was to step up in life, to try to become a hero... AND we had a moment of silence for the astronauts lost. Parents were called and eventually the radio and TV stations were contacted and at least our county let out school at either noon or 1PM... They gave up on the idea of trying to make us learn, considering what we'd all just seen, the conversations that were GOING to be carried on... There was worry about traumatizing the kids, and this legitimately in the 80's. It was the first time I remember anyone in school even mentioning something like that... and we had regular "Nuclear Attack Drills" because (of course) of the threats imminent from the "Dirty Commie Menace"... laughable as it sounds. BUT when Challenger exploded... they counselled us the best they could (including almost instantly shutting down TV sets so the News wouldn't bombard us with those images)... AND then sent us all home... which was its own fiasco, but that's at least a different matter more on the parents side. ;o)

[@keigoftw]

@@insanejughead I recommend exerting caution when interacting with more recent 9/11 documentaries. The further out from the event the more people are willing to interact with the more visceral and harsh parts of that day. Modern docs are more likely to present a mix of examples of the best of mankind & the dire realities of the situation. I saw one this year that decided to put in several things that will haunt me, it might just be one of my favorite overall though. One major plus is that the more recent ones demonstrate something important: familiar faces of that day have grown older, time has passed, some things have healed, others we have learned to live with. There's something very powerful in that, important. Oh! Looking up the Greek Orthodox church next door to the buildings is a nice happy story. The rebuild includes depictions of bible stories with emergency responders in the background, just chillin' with the angels. :')

[@ricardokowalski1579]

Propaganda becomes useless when called out. Once you said it, then they had to stop.

[@debbieellett9093]

I was at work and we all gathered to watch. The shock and sorrow affected me for a very long time. Then to learn it could have been avoided really was unbelievable to me. Many years later, I have finally learned that both ego and greed are motivators that claim innocent lives.

[@ItsJustLisa]

Don’t forget the major budget cuts that Congress had done to NASA while still expecting lots of missions to keep the public enthralled.

[@debbieellett9093]

Exactly

[@juanperezmich]

Yes, just another very public and very famous case of "capitalism kills"

[@michaelg8593]

@@juanperezmich .... HOW? Its government under funding a government agency how the hell does that have anything to do with a free market?

[@natowaveenjoyer9862]

@@juanperezmich Thoughts on all the Soviet cosmonauts killed in their space program?

[@Fedge378]

I watched all of the shuttle launches live on TV, this one was no different. Once I realized what happened, I was devastated. The loss of life and the craft just plain hurt. One of the schools in my town has a plaque dedicated to the Challenger and crew. 😢

[@kb1gni]

Being from New Hampshire, this was a tough one. I was a Senior in HS and because of the tie-in with the Teacher in Space program and how close we were to where Krista taught, we watched it live on the video cart like so many others around my age. I was old enough and had enough interest in the Shuttle program that I immediately knew how bad it was, both for the crew and for the Shuttle program. Great job with the video.

[@shereesmazik5030]

Please don’t apologize if the videos are longer! They are very interesting and I want more to enjoy learning about every time they end . Usually signals a rewatch later . Thank you .

[@Fusilier7]

I was not born yet when the Challenger exploded, but my mother, who was working at a daycare centre did see the disaster live on TV. I cannot imagine what it was like for millions of viewers to see the Challenger disaster as it happened, including the class belonging to Christa McAuliffe, it must have been painful seeing their teacher parishing on the most advanced spacecraft ever built.

[@robert48044]

2nd grade here, after watching it happen the day returned to normal

[@TheRealTanSeeker]

I guess similar to watching the twin towers attack. It was 11pm or so we were on evening shift and I saw the second plane hit on live TV then the collapse. Devastating to see on TV let alone the people in ny actually there.

[@krisismav]

@@robert48044tbf, i was in 2nd grade when 9/11 happened and i too would say the same from my perspective lol i'm p sure people with a good understanding were shocked/devastated by the tragedy esp those close to the astronauts

[@SofaKingShit]

I was struck by how fast the first jokes came out, and this was way before the Internet.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@SofaKingShit Yes, the very next morning in school the shuttle jokes were already flying around.

[@jackmars931]

My mother was a science teacher at this time and applied for this program. I remember we both stayed home from school this day to watch the launch. Like everybody else we were horrified, but felt lucky at the same time.

[@pokepress]

I had a summer school rocketry class in the 90’s with an instructor who made it fairly far in the selection process.

[@kupokinzyt]

My uncle is a thief who steals my money and buys drugs

[@edgarst837]

The head of my high school science department was one of the finalist in this program. He knew Christa McAulife and had trained with her. He took a sabbatical for the '87-'88 school year in part due to the accident.

[@anthonyplanzo1082]

I'll never forget this day watching this with my grandmother. The sound of her voice when it happened will never leave my mind. That was an awful day.

[@corbinbrier0]

As someone from New Hampshire, Christa's death had a lasting affect on so many. Although I wasn't alive when it happened we still were educated on it in school even years after it happened and heard stories from our parents about it. I still can't imagine the pain her family, friends, class, and co-workers went through seeing that happen live. Breaks my heart thinking about it.

[@asoggyflipflop]

Same here. I remember by uncle telling me about it, and I still have reminders of it all the time even if I wasn’t alive then. New Hampshire has not and will never forget her.

[@CuriousMess61]

I had just started my work shift that day and the radio was on. A local station was covering it and were talking excitedly about the launch and then went dead silent. Then, after about minute, announced it had exploded. I stopped what I was doing in disbelief. I wont ever forget that. I had always thought it was the orbiter itself that had the problem, not one of the boosters. Thank you so much for this documentary explaining things so well.

[@moniquemcpherson6927]

I had a similar experience, but mine involved 9/11. Both events grabbed the world's attention. 😮

[@kohinarec6580]

9/11. I was at home, having come from school (I live in Finland). Dad came from work, told me a plane had crashed WTC. He turned on CNBC just as the second plane hit. I was 10. I turned on the VCR and recorderd a total of six hours of the disaster. Next day every kid at school was drawing burning skyscrapers. It was hauntigly captivating. I would go back to that tape again and again. Even though I live far away and have no US connections, it still was dramatic and traumatic.

[@knightrider585]

Amazing someone like Feynman was allowed on the commission. I can't imagine a government allowing someone so frank and honest anywhere near such an investigation these days.

[@cartilagehead]

lol the Reagan admin is directly responsible for what happened. Allowing Feynman onto the commission after the fact was the least they could do

[@jwenting]

@@cartilageheadthe Reagan administration had nothing to do with it, it was all NASA administrators wanting to show they could reach the promised launch cadence when they knew full well, as did congress, that they couldn't. So the bureaurats decided to cut corners everywhere. If you want to blame a Republican, blame Nixon for cutting back the original STS program in order to reduce the budget deficit, a decision that, under his demoratic successors, directly led to many of the design compromises that eventually caused the accident.

[@Tiberiansam]

@@jwenting Reagan actually contacted NASA administrators himself to put pressure and expedite the lauch of Challenger unless I'm mistaken...

[@cartilagehead]

@@jwenting do you know who appointed the NASA commissioner and those administrators? Do you know what their roles were before being appointed? This is well documented stuff, I’m not just doing partisan spitballing. It’s been covered to death.

[@solandri69]

@@Tiberiansam Reagan championed the teacher in space program as a means to encourage schoolchildren to enter STEM fields. I've heard he contacted NASA several times for updates on when the launch would happen. But never that he directly pressured them to move up the launch. The NASA admins unfortunately interpreted it that way.

[@jerry2357]

5:51 Correction: the first American woman. The first woman in space was the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, twenty years before Sally Ride travelled to space in the shuttle.

[@1pcfred]

Well, there is Rafał Gan-Ganowicz's stance on the matter. When he was asked what it was like to kill a human he replied, "I wouldn't know, I've only ever killed Communists."

[@jal492]

I remember seeing this happen live on TV when I was about 4 years old; it still haunts me all this time later. As a note, the sequence in Koyaanisqatsi you reference looked a lot like the Challenger explosion, but was apparently footage of another unmanned rocket that was intentionally destroyed when it deviated from its launch trajectory. Keep up the great work John.

[@jal492]

@maltheri9833 Before the lift off, there was footage of the astronauts waving as they boarded the shuttle, so I knew they were inside when it exploded. When it happened, I was watching it with my mum; she promptly got up and turned the TV off and took me outside to try and distract me, but I understood what had happened and that those people just got killed. It's pretty much my first coherent memory. :(

[@asoggyflipflop]

@maltheri9833at least for me I was able to comprehend death at a very young age- I mean my dad was and still is suici41 so I was exposed to it whenever I saw him. Affected my whole development as I grew up and made me fear the death of people since I was like 5

[@rcflight13]

Koyaanisqatsi actually predates the Challenger disaster by a couple years. The rocket shown was an unmanned Atlas rocket. For me it makes the film almost prophetic. That man has reached far beyond what was ever intended and ended up getting burned, and that for all our technological advancements people aren't any happier than before.

[@jeffwoodard]

I can remember every detail of this day. I was in the 4th grade. I just so happen to miss school that day and was with my dad looking at dirt bikes at the local motorcycle shop. I remember hearing it broadcast over the radio as we were driving back home. This was a huge deal at the time. Since this was the first teacher in space and most every school had made reservations to watch this live...A sad day in history.

[@milfordcivic6755]

I remember this day. I was in 4th grade and our whole wing at school was watching it on TV because of Christa McCauliffe, a NH school teacher. I remember one of the teachers saying "It's like the 4th of July". 1 minute later they shut off the TV and told us to go back to class. 5 minutes later the Principal announced the tragedy over the PA system. When we got home from school, it's all that was on every TV channel.

[@ZergSmasher]

A terrible tragedy indeed, and the worst part is that it was easily preventable. I would love to see your take on the Columbia disaster, as I don't mind a longer video and I remember that one when it happened (I wasn't born until almost a year after Challenger blew up).

[@kaydreamer]

Seconding this! I was watching Columbia's re-entry live in Australia - I think I was about 13. It was horrifying, watching it disintegrate in flames.

[@DevinEMILE]

@@kaydreamer Crazy to think Columbia was caused by another well known issue that they countinued to ignore. Atlantis almost burned up on re-entry like COlumbia did. It was also hit by falling debries from the launch. The heat sheild was missing mutiple peices that had been burnt through

[@fluffyfour]

I saw a very detailed documentary on this a year or so ago. Not to detract from your excellent work, but that programme said something I have never heard anywhere else - it's likely the crew cabin was not destroyed instantly, but stayed intact until it impacted the ground. I can't imagine how those astronauts felt. It affected me deeply. It must have been, well, harrowing, to say the least.

[@marcmcreynolds2827]

It was known at the time (after analysis of lever positions in the recovered wreckage) that at least some of the crew were initially conscious. It is believed that all would have become unconscious as the cabin reached peak altitude. It is unknown whether any regained consciousness prior to water impact (at 207 mph). Some people do claim to know, including an astronaut IIRC , but without any real basis.

[@RyanSanderson]

My father was part of a company contracted to replace a steel storage cabinet in the crew module with a honeycomb composite version that could be installed by 2 people rather than a bunch of people and a few machines. He knew the commander of this Challenger mission personally. To this day, every time the subject of challenger comes up either on TV or some program, he watches it, and I can always tell he’s holding back tears

[@4DRC_]

The Challenger disaster is one of those things that really shows how we really weren’t that different from the Soviet Union, as much as we wanted to think we were. The same kind of pressures - the desire to create good optics ahead of a major political event via the launch of a space mission - led to the loss of both Soyuz 1 and the Challenger. In both cases leadership ignored the warnings of engineers and other experts and people died in the name of chasing PR. In the case of Soyuz 1, it was the anniversary of the revolution, for the Challenger, it was Reagan’s state of the union address.

[@natowaveenjoyer9862]

Low-IQ subhuman take.

[@pokepress]

We’re definitely subject to the same laws of physics, and both capable of human error.

[@Oats-yi5sf]

I was at home watching with my mom when this happened. Mom started crying. You don't have to be related or know people. Having a heart and caring is what makes us who we are.

[@chicken29843]

It's hard to when the true scale of human suffering is available to see and realize, you desensitize yourself or spend every waking moment in dread of your good fortune

[@dbuck5350]

II had just left Melbourne, south of KSC, and was heading N on I-95. Like most, I immediately pulled over to watch the launch close to several other cars who stopped and got out. It was beautiful, until it wasn't. As I watched plums take off in different directions, and heard the oohs and ahs of some out-of-state observers, I just had to say it, "That's not right. Something went wrong. I think it broke apart." They looked stunned, but now we could hear it on the radios in the cars next to us. I will never forget the sinking feeling it gave me, and your opening shot of the accident was like my memory being replayed.

[@notagooglesimp8722]

Give your music guy a raise. I have goosebumps.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank I will pay my self extra ;D

[@ICYTR]

I’ve done a lot of research and read several books, including the one mentioned in your video and Allan McDonald’s book. You nailed it, good sir. There’s no way in heck that everything needing to be covered could be done in a short video (heck, even NASA’s video with its chilling narrator took half an hour.) I’ll definitely send this on to others! Thank you for your quality content, per usual!

[@Serenity_Dee]

The Challenger explosion is burned into my memory. I was ten years old at the time and deeply in love with space and science about space, and it was the first time I felt like I got punched in the gut from this kind of tragedy because it was so much my interest. My mom owned a copy of a political cartoon from the time, a drawing of a bald eagle weeping at an explosion off-panel, and her adventure to get an archival-quality copy of the artwork was written about as a humorous few column inches in the very paper she requested it from (anonymized, but still). I wonder if I still have it in a box somewhere.

[@ckotcher1]

I was 10 as well. It was two days after my 10th birthday January 26, 1976.

[@anaxis]

I was watching with my 5th grade class, not far from the Cape. Our teacher started crying and so did some of the kids, before the office turned off the TVs. But then they still sent us outside to the recess ground early, like when a successful launch was made so we could watch the rocket plumes climb into space; but of course there was nothing. And even though it was still frigid cold, everyone stood around staring at that part of the sky until someone remembered that we'd never see the Challenger again & brought us back inside. For the entire rest of the day the entire school was hushed. Even the loud, normally rambunctious younger kids were quiet & subdued.

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

I was in 4th grade. Mrs. Derry - the substitute teacher who'd had to take over classes from Mrs. Rohr, who was out on maternity leave - brought the A/V cart into the class. She was crying. We'd all heard about Christa McAuliffe from over in Concord, NH - one state away - going up into space. It seemed so wild to think about. Mrs. Derry put on the television and we watched quietly as, for the umpteenth time that day, the broadcast showed the Challenger rise, then explode into pieces, while what looked like the remnants of rockets took off in two directions. What could we say? I kept thinking of the lyrics from a James Taylor song: Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground. There were the tasteless jokes from late night television hosts, some of which made it to school. My mother wondered if Christa had children of her own (she had two, plus an entire classroom of students), and if they would be all right. Then, I watched TV with my dad and saw Dr. Feynman show how that o-ring material broke after being submerged in ice water, for seemingly no time at all (this demonstration, by the way, demonstrated what a good teacher Dr. Feynman really was. He didn't belittle anyone, he spoke plainly, and every member of the audience could understand him. I read somewhere that he was really unwell during this entire investigation, but continued to be a part of it because it was important to make sure it never happened again). A cheap piece of rubber stole the lives of seven people. Other people decided not to spend money and time fixing this problem. Other people decided to launch because it was more convenient to them to push it and hope for the best. No one thought of the lives aboard that vessel. It was a set of decisions that made my father quite angry. "Do me a favor and don't go to space," he said. Happily, I can report that I have easily kept that promise. Much later, I learned that General Kutyna told Dr. Feynman about the o-ring issue by talking hypothetically about working on his car's carburetor; but only after Sally Ride's death did we learn that she had given General Kutyna a copy of an official NASA document with two sets of calculations: temperature versus o-ring resiliency. She was afraid of being fired, but knew that General Kutyna would find a way to put Dr. Feynman onto it.

[@kaydreamer]

'Fire and Rain' is the song. It was before my time, but the first time I ever heard that line, it made me think of Challenger as well. I spent my childhood longing for the stars, so I knew the story of the disaster all too well.

[@kathrynjames6151]

My dad always told me how he had seen the video of them talking about the O ring loosing flexibility when cold. He was in college to be an engineer at the time, and seeing that made him realize just how much one little detail such as that can cause a tragic disaster such as challenger.

[@rebeckylee157]

I was in my fourth grade class watching this live on TV back in 86.’ It was my first televised national tragedy that I had ever witnessed. At ten, I didn’t understand what was going on. My teacher raced to turn off the TV, and we weren’t sure if that was supposed to have happened. It wasn’t until 9/11 that I had realized the magnitude of what had occurred on a nationwide scale way back then for grown ups, like my parents and grandparents. NASA was huge back then, with Space Camp contests, and such. My father was an engineer at Lockheed, and he designed the interior of the Space Shuttles at his job, so I imagine that it hit him pretty hard, but even to this day - I never bothered asking.

[@pvt.bushmann5903]

My mother was in High School watching the launch live. She can still recount just about every detail to this day.

[@bluejedi723]

I was in 2nd grade. I remember the entire school being in the gym to watch the launch...it was a HUGE deal. I remember soon as the admin realized what happened, everything shut off fast and they told us to go back to our classrooms

[@chicken29843]

Yes when you have a reason to remember a day it's much easier to. Though your memory will not be nearly as accurate as you will be convinced it is.

[@bluejedi723]

it is accurate. The school was filming us and our reactions to the event as we were 2000+ miles away from Florida. I remember we being taken back to the our classrooms and us little kids crying and an hour or later buses taking us home. Years later, the school released the film they took of everything that day. And yep, my memory was about 90% spot on@@chicken29843

[@templarw20]

As someone who remembers watching this on TV... thanks for the documentary. Well done.

[@peewee678]

I saw Koyaanisqatsi for the first time in 1983 (I was 20) and the movie is from 1982 (four years before the challenger disaster). The rocket explosion you're referring to (and the shot of the engine falling out of the sky) is from 1962 (some of the material in Koyaanisqatsi is stock footage). No one was injured because it was an unmanned Atlas-Centaur AC-1 rocket.

[@brianharris22]

Came here to say same thing, beat me to it 😅

[@ssdrdr]

Was about to say the same thing (as Koyaanisqatsi is one of my favorite films). @PlainlyDifficult, thank you for all your excellent works.

[@tdb7992]

I'm actually in the middle of building a Lego space shuttle. Perfect timing for you to release this video!

[@yutub6928]

Thank you. In less than half an hour you managed to present in a succinct way this disaster. Excellent presentation.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!!

[@NathanSimonGottemer]

The challenger disaster was what the professor of my engineering failure studies class - which was a social science my school offered for us engineers who hated literature classes lol - used to introduce the idea of looking for the underlying cause. The immediate cause - something she would call the “O-ring” - was always, as she put it, just that tip of the iceberg. You were supposed to start there and then work toward what the actual underlying cause was.

[@Moose6340]

I was in college when this happened. Coming back from class around noon, I couldn't figure out why I saw a couple of different girls running around crying hysterically. When I got back to my dorm and walked into the TV lounge, there must've been 40 people crowded in there all watching the coverage. It was really one of those "where were you when" moments that you never forget, like 9/11. Shocking because we'd been sold that the Shuttle was nothing more than a "space truck" that was reliable and effective, and people didn't really think much about Shuttle launches anymore by 1986. The irony is now in 2023, we DO have a "space truck" that's reliable and effective...SpaceX's Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy series. Not really in the same weight or payload class as the Shuttle, but far more cost-efficient and reliable.

[@BuzzKiller23]

You and Paul Shilito from curious droid are two of my favorite creators on KZbin. Great work John!

[@ThePotsy]

John, this was an absolute masterpiece. I was around a year old when this occurred, but for some reason it has fascinated me my entire life. So much more than the "NASA bought cheap o-rings" story you hear all the time.

[@chris_is_here_oh_no]

Excellent documentary, I still remember this event from my childhood seeing it happen in class. Thank you for the overall case study.

[@faenethlorhalien]

Wow. Now I'm happy we were never shown any tv in school in Spain back then.

[@RCAvhstape]

It's interesting to look at the aftermath. For a while at least, NASA took safety seriously again. Then by the late 90s they were pulling PR stunts again such as the John Glenn flight. The normalization of deviance trend never ended either. Since the very first flight debris from the ET's foam insulation had been striking the orbiter during launch, which was NOT supposed to happen, but because they got away with it so many times they quit worrying about it, right up until loss of Columbia in 2003. As with Challenger, this was a preventable accident had they just followed their own rules. For some reason, the Columbia accident didn't have the devastating effect on the public as Challenger. Two years after 9/11 and with endless war in front of us, it was like people just felt they had more important things to worry about than another Shuttle accident.

[@mattwilliams3456]

I watched this from the PE field of my elementary school about 45 miles from the pad. Terrible day. Fast forward to 2003 and I was working at KSC when we lost Columbia. My boss had actually flown on Challenger once. Even despite these losses I still miss the STS program and wish we had them still flying.

[@T_Mo271]

I wish the STS design had been a lot better, such that we could still be flying it. Incredibly lucky that only two crews were lost.

[@lolalouise9503]

I remember watching this, l was 8 years old and l remember everyone in school talking about it the next day including the teachers. I’m from the UK as well, it was a massive story every where.

[@poppymason-smith1051]

Thank you for the detail you put into your videos. Ive seen a couple of documentaries and other youtube videos about this and no one else has shown a diagram of the bracket system involved in the incident. Such a simple thing that gives more understanding.

[@Sandrawest64]

Thank you. John, for an excellent description of the SRB connections. As always, you have taken complicated technology, and made it accessible for the layman. Kudos to you. It was a heartbreak for all who suffered through this tragedy

[@bluejedi723]

I was in 2nd grade. I remember the entire school being in the gym to watch the launch...it was a HUGE deal. I remember soon as the admin realized what happened, everything shut off fast and they told us to go back to our classrooms. About an hour later, we were being sent home early. Us little kids were crying, old kids (5th/6th grade) were just stunned

[@ghostporcupine]

I hate that horrible things happen, but your videos are always so clear and explanatory that they make my day.

[@patpierce4854]

I was the Science Department Head at the time for a small school in Oklahoma. In addition, I had been among the teachers who applied for Teacher In Space - was told I hadn’t been teaching long enough for their criteria. In any case, we had the entire school population K-8 crowded into the lunchroom to watch live. Cheers became silence which became wracking sobs. I felt helpless, because all the kids wanted me to explain what had happened and why, since I’d been a Teacher In Space candidate. Images of the explosion live in my brain right alongside the shooting star like debris from Columbia, the wreckage of the Murragh Building in the Oklahoma city bombing, and the crashes and falling towers of 9/11.

[@ariannahernandez4745]

My elementary school was named after the teacher. On our first week, they had us go to the gym so we can learn about how our school got its name. Introduced us to show she was and her beautiful character. And then minutes later showed challenger exploding... our school logo and mascot was the shuttle..

[@tennesseemisty5073]

I will never forget it…I was watching in my fifth grade class. It was a big deal so every class was watching, all excited due to a teacher going up into space. When it exploded, my teacher jumped up, not knowing what to do, she quickly switched off the tv, she quietly looked around at her class, then instantly turned the tv back on. I always felt her curiosity got the best of her & she had to watch what happened. We all learnt what tragedy was that day.

[@EXROBOWIDOW]

I wonder if she realized that it would be shown over and over again, and everyone would be watching it anyway. Maybe that's why she switched it back on.

[@tennesseemisty5073]

@@EXROBOWIDOW …Maybe so. I’ve always wondered…Maybe she thought “well, they already saw it happen.”

[@AcornElectron]

I watched it happen live when I was a kid. Space was still a big deal in the 80s. Bloody horrible.

[@krissteel4074]

I was in my early teens and remember it like it was yesterday, the Shuttle was 'the big thing' for space travel that was wildly exciting. So it was like a hero getting killed

[@templarw20]

Same.

[@UNcommonSenseAUS]

Propaganda victims, all of you

[@CarlosAM1]

​@@UNcommonSenseAUSa troll or an easily fooled person, you.

[@tusse67]

@@UNcommonSenseAUS Attention is what you desperately seek, isnt it?

[@de-fault_de-fault]

I was a little less than a year old when this happened, so obviously I don’t remember it firsthand. But that very fact-that my mother has told me about how she watched it happen on live TV with me sitting in her lap, and yet I can’t possibly remember it-has made this incident completely fascinating to me my entire life. As always your take on it is as good a version of the story as I’ve found anywhere. Definitely a lesson in how it’s more important to actually get it right than to worry about saving face. Unfortunately even as well-established and respected entity as NASA faces those same familiar pressures to look smart even if it means doing something stupid.

[@jims6450]

After seeing that happen on live TV, I had nightmares about it for years. Still gives me chills to see it again. RIP Challenger Crew.

[@DrTLEvans]

I will never forget this day. Our teacher brought the TV into our classroom. We didn’t know what to make of what happened. So tragic. May their souls continue to RIP

[@mightyV444]

I'd seen some of this footage again only a few days ago and while at a gig in my town, where they had Space Travel-related video clips playing on a screen at the back of the stage while performing their music. I was 16 at the time this happened and admit it didn't shock me as much as the flight show disaster in Ramstein/Germany two years later; Seeing _that_ on the News haunted me for days!

[@Ray1624]

This was before my time but mom told me the O ring was made in our home town & it's a running joke in our town at some the older mechanics that if there's ever a leak in a car "it's not the o rings is it?"

[@menwithven8114]

I grew up in Florida and was in elementary school when this happened. It has become a deep part of Florida's painful history.

[@petechongy]

Man this still brings tears to my eyes and I remember watching it live on TV I was 7 at the time and even I knew instantly it exploded and will never get that image out of my head.

[@_triff]

I came home from primary school to watch the launch live on TV, right as disaster hit I shouted through to the kitchen where my mum was prepping dinner and said “Challenger just exploded!”. She fired back an almost angrily (my mum never got angry), “Don’t say things like that!” and I replied in disbelief “no, come see...”. As a space mad 9 year old, I vividly remember us watching in stunned silence as the fireball expanded and both SRBs diverged to create the iconic image we now all know. So sad and so preventable. RIP.

[@jannamckeen4414]

I was in 2nd grade in Texas and we were all gathered in the auditorium to watch the first Teacher go into space...i just cried and cried...they had to have my mom come get me. Now as an adult watching documentaries about just makes it even more tragic after finding out that there were people that knew there were defects. Still breaks my heart 😢

[@Juanxlink]

I remember watching this live from spain, me being 8 watching before lunch, and turning around after "the worm" showed up to ask dad if that was normal. I dont recall ever getting a response... RIP to those lost, and dont let deadlines and greed do that again.

[@artkemono]

I grew up in Brevard County, the county in FL that Canaveral is located. Schools in FL that are within visual range of launches generally allow kids to go out into the schoolyard to watch launches, and this was especially the case for this particular launch, given the mission. At first, we kids didn't know what exactly happened (4th grade), but the teachers quickly pulled us back into the classroom and it was explained to us what had happened. The thing that I remember the most from that morning was looking up towards the sun prior to the launch. You see, there was a double rainbow around the sun that morning because it was so cold that ice crystals in the air created the rainbows. This was a very solid video and even after watching other videos about the disaster, I learned something new watching it. It was easy to understand and hit on all the important points. Thank you for making this video.

[@GeneralKenobiSIYE]

I do enjoy these longer form videos of yours. Nice work, my friend.

[@karagalactic]

My dad worked at Thiokol during this time. He personally knew the engingeers who voiced their concerns. He wouldn't talk to me about it at all. I didnt know he worked there until i told my dad about how my teacher talked about the challenger disaster in my chemistry class. He then opened up a bit but only said one of the engineers felt it was completely his fault and could have done more.

[@josephconnor2310]

Wow. Thank you for posting.

[@MeduseldRabbit]

I watched the Challenger live on TV at primary/elementary school. It had been so hyped up that every single class was watching. My memory is hazy now all these years later, but I do know that was the day I stopped wanting to be an astronaut. And looking back as an adult, I don't envy the teachers having to deal with the trauma the kids experienced. I know there is no way in heck they managed to smack the power button fast enough to stop anyone from seeing, and they would have had the hard task of explaining what happened.

[@Halinspark]

According to my mom, everything in her class got really quiet except for the teachers crying. When 9/11 happened, she turned all the alarms off in the house and made us miss school thay day so we wouldn't have to deal with any collective stress like she remembered from Challenger.

[@asoggyflipflop]

I wasn’t there when it happened but learning about the explosion is what made me want to be a cosmologist instead of an astronaut like all the other kids. I kept telling my parents that I like space but I really don’t want to go there.

[@andrewshobbybasement]

Feynman is one of my personal heroes. His memoires "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" are absolutely worth the read, with the latter book covering Feynman's investigation into the Challenger disaster. It was even adapted into a pretty good (albeit somewhat exaggerated) TV movie in 2013 starring William Hurt, which is definitely worth watching for anyone interested in this particular disaster. As a side note, there is also a 2019 movie about this disaster that is pretty good and centers around the engineers at Thyiokol who tried to stop the launch from happening (both movies are simply titled "The Challenger Disaster"). There is also a movie titled "Infinity" starring Matthew Broderick about Feynman's time working on the Manhattan Project that i would highly recommend. If you watched "Oppenheimer" and wanted to know more about the guy who was always playing the Bongos in the background, definitely check out "Infinity."

[@mirskym]

I was 7 years into my electrical engineering career at a major electrical utility. The HR department ran a documentary on this disaster a year or so later. It included a recreation of the NASA/Thiokol phone conference. At one point, a Nasa exec, after hearing Thiokol's concerns exclaimed "My G-d, Thiokol! When do you want us to launch? Next June?". That was before the break in the call when Thiokol deliberated and came back to agree. This was a classic case of "group think", under pressure, the few who were against the launch were over-ruled. As opposed to this, see the movie "12 Angry Men" with Henry Fonda, which portrayed how at a murder trial jury deliberations, one juror ruled not guilty and the other 11 were pressured by a few others to rule guilty. The one juror then managed to bring the others to his side.

[@snakesnoteyes]

i watched this live in kindergarten. i had been a space kid the same way that other kids were dinosaur kids at the time and i cried so hard my mom had to come get me. i kept watching the replays on the news in my dad's home office until my mom caught me and made me stop. i'm still a space nerd, but i'll never forget that day.

[@jasonpocaro2730]

We were watching it, live, on a giant projector in the auditorium, together, hundreds of people, in 1 room, watching it go up, counter running. Last real memorable moment was... 😮 "Go, With Throttle Up?" From the shuttle. Next moment was screaming and crying, for a week. 🙏

[@LuisFranciscoFontalvoRomero]

I thought I knew all that was there to know about the challenger disaster, but this video taught me a lot. Thanks for going in deep on the background, even the diagrams about the joints and the location of the o-rings. I’ll love to see your take on the Columbia disaster.

[@jonparrott3332]

That was done exceptionally well John. I think Columbia is a natural follow-up

[@windsaw151]

I read Feynman's book where he described his experiences with the investigation of the disaster. It is a very good read. Very recommended! It should be noted that Feynman didn't have a problem with a failure rate of 1 % per se. Space flight was a risky business after all. But he was furious that they claimed that the odds were magnitudes lower when this clearly wasn't the case. That claimed magnitude was used to convince the teacher to board that mission.

[@christopherconard2831]

I may be getting him confused with someone else, but I recall he was also upset with NASA ignoring the cumulative effect of minor issues. 1-2% might be acceptable. But 1% here, 0.5% there in critical parts begins to add up quickly. Everyone at NASA, including the astronauts, knew a critical system failure would happen eventually. Most were surprised it occurred so early in the shuttle program. Or at least hoped a critical failure would just lead to scrubbing the mission early.

[@marcmcreynolds2827]

SAIC did a very dtailed STS "failure rate" study for NASA as the program was getting underway which predicted a far lower rate than 1%. That was working from previous rocket experience (SRM failure rate, bolt failure rate, etc), long before insulation and so forth was known to be a problem. So going into it, that was the metric they had to work from. Feynman was furious after the fact, but that is no great feat.

[@marcmcreynolds2827]

@@christopherconard2831 "Most were surprised it occurred so early in the shuttle program." FWIW the astronaut office was aware that for example the wings would have come off STS-1 if it had been carrying the design payload weight: Once strain gauge data from that first flight was available, it was clear there were negative design margins out toward the wing tips, thanks to aero load estimations from wind tunnel testing etc having been off. There was an astronaut representative present at all the major "issues" meetings involving safety of flight. They knew it wasn't exactly the safest thing that NASA ever put in the air.

[@spaaade2450]

i haven't watched this video yet, only just started it. i'm 1:34 in. i've never actually seen footage of the Challenger, only heard of the disaster. that was heartbreaking to watch, even when i knew what was going to happen. seeing all seven of them walk outside, smiling and happy and genuinely excited, not knowing they were cheerfully walking to their deaths. i usually love this kind of content, but i'm not sure if i can watch the rest of this video.

[@Delphae111]

I was in kindergarten when this happened. While I didn't see it on television, I remember it being talked about, before and after the explosion and the moment of silence we had in school afterwards.

[@amandadobbs8609]

A third of the members of the Rogers Commission were legends of American space and aeronautic history. Also, to say that Rogers' leadership and tone for the investigation was relaxed is a significant understatement: it was meant to be a cover-up. The only reason Americans got any kind of meaningful resolution from the investigation was because a few members actively defied Rogers to really try to figure things out.

[@amandadobbs8609]

Agreed. I stand corrected.@@SnakebitSTI