Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger (1986)

and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Seven Americans died aboard space shuttle Challenger this morning. The seven were Francis R. Dick Scobee, the spacecraft commander, Michael J. Smith, the pilot, mission specialist Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, and Ellison Onizuka, payload specialist Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe, a Concord, New Hampshire, schoolteacher, the first participant in NASA's Citizen in Space program. Robin. This mission, like other recent shuttle launches, had been delayed by weather and mechanical problems, but they only added to the suspense and the unusual attention this flight attracted as the first to carry a private citizen into space. And when the delays ended, everything pointed to a perfect launch. After five postponements, the astronauts were well rehearsed in the routine of early morning preparations. They were planning to release a satellite to study Halley's Comet and then retrieve it. Mrs. McAuliffe planned to teach two brief lessons for schools on the Public Broadcasting Service.

The mission also called for launching a communications satellite. It was to be the first launch from a new pad at Cape Canaveral. At the last moment, another hitch developed this morning. In the bitterly cold weather, icicles formed on the launch pad, and there was concern that they might harm the spacecraft. It took two hours to clear them away and get ready for a launch. At first, it looked good. T-minus 15 seconds. T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6... We have main engine start. 4, 3, 2, 1. And liftoff. Liftoff of the 25th Space Shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower. Now controlling. Roger. Good roll program confirmed. Challenger now heading downrange. Engines beginning throttling down now at 94 percent.

Normal throttles for most of the flight, 104 percent. We'll throttle down to 65 percent shortly. Engines at 65 percent. Three engines running normally. Three good fuel cells. Three good APUs. Velocity 2,257 feet per second. Altitude 4.3 nautical miles, downrange distance 3 nautical miles. Engines throttling up. Three engines now at 104 percent. Challenger, go at throttle up. Challenger, go at throttle up. One minute, 15 seconds. Velocity 2,900 feet per second. Altitude 9 nautical miles, downrange distance 7 nautical miles. Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation.

Obviously a major malfunction. We have no downlink. We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point. At first, many at the launch site were not fully aware of what had happened.

Among those watching were Mrs. McAuliffe's husband, Steve, and their two children, Scott, 9, and Carolyn, 6, members of Scott's third-grade class from Concord, New Hampshire, and her parents, Ed and Grace Corrigan of Framingham, Massachusetts. Here's how the Corrigans and others reacted. After NASA's often-rehearsed rescue procedures went into action, paramedics parachuted into the Atlantic, but because flaming debris continued to fall from the sky, it was 45 minutes before Coast Guard ships and rescue helicopters could move in to search the impact area closely. There was almost no hope that the crew could have survived such a cataclysmic explosion, but it was not until 4.30 p.m. that NASA announced officially there was no evidence of survivors.

It was 19 years ago yesterday that the only other fatalities in the U.S. space program happened. Three Apollo astronauts died in an explosion on the launch pad. The 1,200 students at Concord, New Hampshire High School were assembled together to watch this morning's launch. They had a special interest, a 37-year-old English teacher named Christa McAuliffe. We have a report from Concord by Mary Ann Cain. There was an air of jubilation, of party hats and party horns at Concord High School this morning as hundreds of Christa McAuliffe's colleagues, friends, and students gathered around television monitors in the school auditorium to watch the 1139 blastoff. It was going to be a great party, a great sendoff. History was being made. They even joined in cheering the countdown. Three, two, one. They were so happy, so proud and excited for the 37-year-old social studies teacher.

In a sense, she carried with her many of their own hopes for adventure, for challenge, for self-realization. But all of that suddenly and tragically shattered when the shuttle Challenger exploded within moments of takeoff. They witnessed it on the monitors. Suddenly, there was silence. Only the low tones of the television monitors witnessed to the tragic event. The students sat in stunned disbelief. Some simply staring, others trying to comfort each other. Then they left, and the press was ushered out. Today's tragedy caused the cancellation of tonight's State of the Union address. President Reagan and congressional leaders agreed to postpone it a week until next Tuesday night. President Reagan was in the Oval Office preparing to brief a group of television anchors and correspondents on the State of the Union when he was informed of the tragedy.

He did eventually join the group in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. He spoke then of the horror he felt when he viewed a television replay of the explosion and of his deep sympathy and grief for the families of the seven victims. He said his mind was fixed on remembering his meeting Christa McAuliffe, her husband and two children, right in that same White House room several weeks ago. He dispatched Vice President Bush to Cape Canaveral to express his concern to the families. And later in the afternoon, from the Oval Office, President Reagan spoke briefly about the tragedy on national television. We mourn seven heroes, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together. The families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace,

that special spirit that says, give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy. They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us. We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years, the United States Space Program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.