{"id":31685,"date":"2023-01-28T11:50:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T16:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=31685"},"modified":"2023-01-28T11:50:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T16:50:00","slug":"challenger-shuttle-disaster-facts-that-you-may-not-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=31685","title":{"rendered":"Challenger Shuttle Disaster Facts That You May Not Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On this day in 1986, at 11:38am EST, the space shuttle Challenger<\/strong><\/em> lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board were F. Richard Scobee <\/strong>(Mission Commander), Michael J. Smith <\/strong>(Pilot),\u00a0Mission Specialists Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik<\/strong>, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis<\/strong> and Payload Specialist\/Teacher Christa McAuliffe<\/strong>. Seventy-three seconds into the flight, the shuttle broke apart in a cloud of fire. There were no survivors.<\/p>\n

I was a middle school science teacher in Holly Hill, Florida on that day.\u00a0 I’d just walked my students to lunch.\u00a0 Since the shuttle was going up, I walked outside. We could see shuttle launches once they reached altitude.\u00a0 It was cold so there were only a few of us watching.\u00a0 We saw the shuttle vapor trail and it looked like a normal launch until it didn’t.\u00a0 We all commented that this launch was different.\u00a0 We’d never seen a vapor trail split like that before.<\/p>\n

I went to the teacher’s lunch room.\u00a0 As I was sitting down we received word that the shuttle had exploded.\u00a0 We ate in silence.\u00a0 I picked up my students and we went back to class.\u00a0 Students had so many questions.\u00a0 At that point we had no answers.\u00a0 One of my students, a class clown, said he wished there had been more teachers on board.\u00a0 The class shut him down quicker than I could.<\/p>\n

Today History.com posted 5 Things You May Not Know About the Challenger Shuttle Disaster<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Before you click over for the full story, here are my thoughts on each.<\/p>\n

1. The Challenger didn\u2019t actually explode. <\/strong>(Although news media and even NASA at first referred to the disaster as the result of an explosion, it wasn’t.\u00a0 There was a leak from the fuel tank and a fireball but not an explosion.\u00a0 Many still think the Challenger exploded. – Craig)<\/p>\n

2. The astronauts aboard the shuttle didn\u2019t die instantly.\u00a0<\/strong>(This was the topic of much speculation.\u00a0 It’s rumored there are tapes which have never been released of the astronauts aware there was a major problem.\u00a0 I hope that they lost consciousness and the end came quickly for them. – Craig)<\/p>\n

3. Relatively few people actually saw the Challenger disaster unfold on live television.\u00a0<\/strong>(Living in Florida, shuttle launches have always generated a lot of interest.\u00a0 Since we’re close enough to see launches once they reach altitude most folks will go outside to watch.\u00a0 On that January day, because it was so cold, there were only 3 or 4 of us watching. – Craig)<\/p>\n

4. In the aftermath of the tragedy, some suggested that the White House pushed NASA to launch the shuttle in time for President Ronald Reagan\u2019s State of the Union address, scheduled for later on January 28.\u00a0<\/strong>(There was pressure, but it wasn’t from the White House.\u00a0 Ronald Reagan was applauded for his words about the astronauts. – Craig)<\/p>\n

5. More than a decade after the Challenger disaster, two large pieces from the spacecraft washed ashore at a local beach.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this day in 1986, at 11:38am EST, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[72,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-trivia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31686,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31685\/revisions\/31686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}