STS-51L KSC Post Accident Press Conference

STS-51L KSC Post Accident Press Conference
A few hours after the Challenger accident and the loss of the STS-51L crew, NASA Commentator Hugh Harris and NASA Associate Administrator of Spaceflight, Jesse Moore. Mr Moore announces the official NASA announcement of the crews loss.
All video courtesy NASA

[@Johnny.f.face1]

My grandfather, father, and 4 uncles all worked for Rockwell around this time. I remember my dad bringing home a company calendar that showed the shoes for the crawler tracks being machined. I might still have it.

[@ksracing8396]

Just to show the kind of confused situation of NASA top management at that time. Moore apart from his job as Associate Administrator also was acting director of JSC, where Gerry Griffin had left a bit more than one week before. NASA Administrator James Beggs had been forced to take indefinete leave in December 85, after appearing to be involved in a fraud scandal with the DOD, which he was later cleared of. Acting Administrator was William Graham, but not really settled in yet. Yesterday in the NASA panel for Day of Rememberance Bill Nelson made a remark I never heard before, so I don't know if it is really true, but he said that Beggs, somehow still in his office and watching the launch preparations and seeing the icicles on the pad, had tried to call the cape to stop the count, but they did not take his call as he was not the administrator anymore...

[@lunarmodule5]

Wow..if true

[@ksracing8396]

@@lunarmodule5 I really don't know what to think of it - I generally doubt these kind of stories coming up 30, 40 years later and not really to verify any more... But you never know.

[@peacethroughstrength172]

Correct, he did try to call but couldnt get through. Unbelievable!

[@1224chrisng]

RIP Brave Astronauts, Safety rules are written in blood

[@hopelessnerd6677]

NASA was warned. They were warned by the Apollo 1 crew, too. The NASA ship is just too big for a few people to turn. I still remember that day. It was the first day I had returned to work after dental surgery, so I set up my VCR to record the launch on NASATV. A friend called me at work and told me the shuttle had exploded.

[@julietteyork6293]

Jesse Moore lied (or was woefully uninformed) when he said: 1) there was no pressure to proceed with the launch; 2) weather wasn’t a consideration. The opposite in both cases was found to be true. Did he ever recant those statements?

[@BKD70]

Did this man have knowledge before the launch about the concerns that the Thiokol engineering team had about the O-rings and the temperatures that morning? If he did, he looked everyone in the eyes and lied in this presser.

[@masterman1502]

"There was absolutely no pressure...we have always maintained flight safety as a top priority" my ass.

[@natalieardner5509]

@@masterman1502 yeah I was gonna say - what a crock of shit. M-T engineer Allan McDonald was adamant that they not launch but NASA was feeling the squeeze from the public b/c of the numerous delays that coincided with the Teacher in Space program. They blatantly ignored safety issues regarding the O-rings and lower temperatures in the past and continued to operate in their naiveite until Challenger finally nailed them.

[@fredthompson4568]

TY LM5..I did not ever see this Press Briefing from the Cape... TY emencly.

[@conradsieber7883]

Exasperating and not true. NASA did NOT put safety before the launch schedule and this guy I believe pressured Thiokol managers to agree to the launch when their best engineer told them they had no data on the O Rings performance at the low temperatures forecast for launch time. This guy when asked about weather issues is misleading in not addressing the cold weather. Finally it's amazing no press person knew the O Rings were vulnerable. This whole press conference is DEPRESSING. Bureaucracies lie...

[@dks13827]

I remember this on TV.... I was not happy. No one was.

[@IvorMektin1701]

A very bad day.

[@sirmium12]

To this day I still think they souldn't have launched it... I might be wrong, but...

[@RickinBaltimore]

You aren't wrong. The launch was too cold for the O-rings to work properly

[@faktisletztenendes]

From what we had to learn afterwards: You're right, they shouldn't - especially bc the manufacturer's engineers (of the SRB's) tried to warn NASA the weather conditions/the low temperatures might cause serious problems to the booster's sealings. I guess a) the pressure of the public's expectations was too high on NASA as if to postpone launch day for it should've been the first time to take a civilian on board and b) unfortunately NASA was overconfident at that time, IMHO.

[@DarkFalconAnimations]

@lunarmodule5 Thanks for posting this video. Is there a press site view of the launch with the countdown clock in view?

[@lunarmodule5]

Not that I have seen

[@DarkFalconAnimations]

Also, how long exactly after the explosion did the press conference occur?

[@lunarmodule5]

@@DarkFalconAnimations unsure bit would think this was mid afternoon

[@ksracing8396]

@@DarkFalconAnimations It started about 4.30 pm ET, so about 5 hours after the accident

[@DarkFalconAnimations]

How do you know?

[@veanwhitcher7867]

This translates, my bosses made a stupid unadvisable mistake due to continued extrapolation of risk curves in order to make impossible mission numbers. We are all innocent and only one of our asses will be fired. If there is anything other than our incompetence that we can blame, believe me we will find it.

[@autismisfine4984]

Is there plans for the 1st with the columbia disaster

[@peterwmdavis]

8:18 This answer didn’t age well.

[@lunarmodule5]

Yup

[@desertfoxleo]

Indeed - his nose grew by six inches when he gave that answer...

[@BlueAerospace]

Three terrible tragedies in a month...

[@DavianSinner]

What were the other two?

[@pinedelgado4743]

One word. Sad.

[@robbhahn8897]

Not a bad presser--out of the 16 questions asked only about a third were flat-out ridiculous--not bad considering the low average IQ of most reporters.

[@djbeezy]

That reporter that was asking about the liquid fuel looked sooooooo much like Kim Jung Un. Plus, wasn't 51L the last launch Hugh Harris announced?

[@lunarmodule5]

No, Hugh was the commentator for STS-26

[@djbeezy]

@@lunarmodule5 Ahhhh ok. Thanks for the info.

[@theshrew8853]

@@lunarmodule5 I think it was STS 30 Hugh's last launch that he did

[@timothylampel815]

Safety did not come first at NASA

[@D.J.Trump2024MAGA]

The shuttle was brought down by someone initiating the separation from the main tank at the portion of flight with high aerodynamic forces causing it to break up and explode, the shuttle also carried top secret explosives that were to be tested in orbit. These explosives blew up during the breakup ending any chance for crew survival. NASA had to find a patsy so they chose the SRB and manufactured video evidence to back up their lies. The SRBs burn from the center outwards so the unburned fuel would not allow a leak. If one booster was leaking bad enough to burn through the main tank insulation, hull and inner tanks it would have started spiraling out of control but instead it flew through the explosion and kept going up just like its twin. NASA Never A Straight Answer Who triggered the separation? Was it an accident? Was it an israeli or Soviet spy? Did the schoolteacher accidentally hit something or was she a deep cover soviet agent?

[@desertfoxleo]

🤪

[@D.J.Trump2024MAGA]

@@desertfoxleo do some research on the secret explosive it had onboard

[@desertfoxleo]

@@D.J.Trump2024MAGA See Jess, that's not how this works. YOU have made an unsubstantiated claim about the Challenger accident, with suppositions that have never been cited by official accounts of the accident. It's incumbent upon YOU to produce your evidence, if you want anyone to take your claims seriously. Here's what I'd suggest - YOU post links to all of your sources that corroborate your assertions so that the rest of us can study this evidence, and then we can discuss your theories.

[@D.J.Trump2024MAGA]

@@desertfoxleo you do not understand, citing my sources could put peoples lives in danger. You have to rely on unofficial leaks to get the truth. What I say about how exactly the main tank separated may not be 100% but the fact remains that the main tank separation was initiated early causing the breakup The SRB story is Bull excrement. The SRB burns from the inside out. That is known fact that can easily be verified. Knowing that, How was it leaking at liftoff? The fuel would act as an insulator from the housing. If it was still leaking after the explosion, why was one of the not flying in spirals if it had a leak burning though the top bad enough to burn through the tank. The main tank consists of a a hull and 2 internal tanks. How did one SRB leak burn through all the insulation, the main tank metal hull and then 2 internal tanks with one up high and one down low?. Look at it with an open mind like you have no idea of the official records. You will see the only logical conclusion is the main tank separated from the orbiter at the time of maximum aerodynamic forces when the vehicle is in the most danger. The orbiter was carrying experimental explosives to be tested in space for possible satellite killing warfare. The only things to survive the breakup with little or no damage was the SRB's because they flew away from the explosion after separation. If one of them had a bad leak then it would have flown drastically different than the other. That did not happen and the only difference in the flight was the different trajectories they flew away on. I ask you to look at it with an open mind and believing that what I say is possible

[@julietteyork6293]

Citations?