INVESTIGATION

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REASON FOR DISASTER

1. Disintegration of seal in the right solid rocket booster failed at lift off & the failure caused breach allowing higher pressure gas from fuel tank to leak outside.  ( O Ring ) reason.

2.       During the launch on January 28  it was delayed two hours when  there was a hardware interface module in the launch processing system, which monitors the fire detection system, didn’t work during liquid hydrogen tanking procedures.

3.      After several launch delays, NASA officials were concerned of the engineers and ordered a lift off on a cold morning, at 11:38:00 a.m. EST on January 28, 1986 .

4.      The mission ended in tragedy.  The accident occurred 73 seconds into flight, at an altitude of 46,000 feet (14, 020 meters) and at about twice the speed of sound.

5.       The main problem of the explosion was the failure of the aft joint seal in the right Solid Rocket Booster due  to the cold weather.

6.       A  gas leak through the right Solid Rocket Motor aft field joint started at or shortly after burning eventually weakened or got into the External Tank started vehicle structural break-up and loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger during STS Mission 51-L.

SHUTTLE INVESTIGATION

1. In June 1986, people reported that the accident was caused by a failure of O rings in the shuttle’s right solid rocket booster. These rubber rings sealed the joint between the two lower segments of the booster.

2. Design flaws in the joint and unusually cold weather during the launch caused the O rings to allow hot gases to leak out of the booster through the joint.

3. Flames from within the booster streamed past the failed seal and quickly expanded the small hole.

4.  The flaming gases then burned a hole in the shuttle’s external fuel tank.

5. The flames also cut away one of the supporting beams that held the booster to the side of the external tank. The booster tore loose and broken the tank. The propellants from the tank formed a giant fireball as structural failures tore the Space Shuttle Challenger Apart

6.  They finally made a conclusion,  that there was a serious defect in the decision making process leading up to the launch of flight.

 

                                                     CHALLENGER DISASTER PIECE  – FOREVER REMEMBERED EXHIBIT

                                                                                 KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

                                                                                   ORLANDO FLORIDA

 

 

Morton Thiokol (A.T.K.) Rocket Display – BRIGHAM CITY UTAH