1.5 The Challenger Accident

¶The illusion that the Space Shuttle was an operational system, safe enough to carry legislators and a high-school teacher into orbit, was abruptly and tragically shattered on the morning of January 28, 1986, when Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after launch during the 25th mission (see Figure 1.5-1). The seven-member crew perished.

¶To investigate, President Reagan appointed the 13-member Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, which soon became known as the Rogers Commission, after its chairman, former Secretary of State William P. Rogers.¹⁸¹⁸ See John M. Logsdon, "Return to Flight: Richard H. Truly and the Recovery from the Challenger Accident," in Pamela E. Mack, editor, From Engineering to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, NASA SP-4219 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1998) for an account of the aftermath of the accident. Much of the account in this section is drawn from this source. Early in its investigation, the Commission identified the mechanical cause of the accident to be the failure of the joint of one of the Solid Rocket Boosters. The Commission found that the design was not well understood by the engineers that operated it and that it had not been adequately tested.

¶In the seventeen years between the Challenger and Co-

¶Figure 1.5-1. the Space Shuttle Challenger was lost during ascent on January 28, 1986, when an O-ring and seal in the left Solid Rocket Booster failed.

¶When the Rogers Commission discovered that, on the eve of the launch, NASA and a contractor had vigorously debated the wisdom of operating the Shuttle in the cold temperatures predicted for the next day, and that more senior NASA managers were unaware of this debate, the Commission shifted the focus of its investigation to "NASA management practices, Center-Headquarters relationships, and the chain of command for launch commit decisions."¹⁹¹⁹ Logsdon, "Return to Flight," p. 348. As the investigation continued, it revealed a NASA culture that had gradually begun to accept escalating risk, and a NASA safety program that was largely silent and ineffective.

¶The Rogers Commission report, issued on June 6, 1986, recommended a redesign and recertification of the Solid Rocket Motor joint and seal and urged that an independent body oversee its qualification and testing. The report concluded that the drive to declare the Shuttle operational had put enormous pressures on the system and stretched its resources to the limit. Faulting NASA safety practices, the Commission also called for the creation of an independent NASA Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, reporting directly to the NASA Administrator, as well as structural changes in program management.²⁰²⁰ Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Washington: Government Printing Office, June 6, 1986). (The Rogers Commission findings and recommendations are discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.) It would take NASA 32 months before the next Space Shuttle mission was launched. During this time, NASA initiated a series of longer-term vehicle upgrades, began the construction of the Orbiter Endeavour to replace Challenger, made significant organizational changes, and revised the Shuttle manifest to reflect a more realistic flight rate.

¶The Challenger accident also prompted policy changes. On August 15, 1986, President Reagan announced that the Shuttle would no longer launch commercial satellites. As a result of the accident, the Department of Defense made a decision to launch all future military payloads on expendable launch vehicles, except the few remaining satellites that required the Shuttleʼs unique capabilities.

¶lumbia accidents, the Space Shuttle Program achieved significant successes and also underwent organizational and managerial changes. The program had successfully launched several important research satellites and was providing most of the "heavy lifting" of components necessary to build the International Space Station (see Figure 1.5-2). But as the Board subsequently learned, things were not necessarily as they appeared. (The post-Challenger history of the Space Shuttle Program is the topic of Chapter 5.)

¶Figure 1.5-2. The International Space Station as seen from an approaching Space Shuttle.

1.6 Concluding Thoughts

¶The Orbiter that carried the STS-107 crew to orbit 22 years after its first flight reflects the history of the Space Shuttle Program. When Columbia lifted off from Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center on January 16, 2003, it su- perficially resembled the Orbiter that had first flown in 1981, and indeed many elements of its airframe dated back to its first flight. More than 44 percent of its tiles, and 41 of the 44 wing leading edge Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) panels were original equipment. But there were also many new systems in Columbia, from a modern "glass" cockpit to second-generation main engines.

¶Although an engineering marvel that enables a wide-variety of on-orbit operations, including the assembly of the International Space Station, the Shuttle has few of the mission capabilities that NASA originally promised. It cannot be launched on demand, does not recoup its costs, no longer carries national security payloads, and is not cost-effective enough, nor allowed by law, to carry commercial satellites. Despite efforts to improve its safety, the Shuttle remains a complex and risky system that remains central to U.S. ambitions in space. Columbiaʼs failure to return home is a harsh reminder that the Space Shuttle is a developmental vehicle that operates not in routine flight but in the realm of dangerous exploration.

ENDNOTES FOR CHAPTER 1

¶The citations that contain a reference to "CAIB document" with CAB or CTF followed by seven to eleven digits, such as CAB001-0010, refer to a document in the Columbia Accident Investigation Board database maintained by the Department of Justice and archived at the National Archives.

Chapter 2: Columbiaʼs Final Flight

¶Space Shuttle missions are not necessarily launched in the same order they are planned (or "manifested," as NASA calls the process). A variety of scheduling, funding, technical, and – occasionally – political reasons can cause the shuffling of missions over the course of the two to three years it takes to plan and launch a flight. This explains why the 113th mission of the Space Shuttle Program was called STS-107. It would be the 28th flight of Columbia.

¶While the STS-107 mission will likely be remembered most for the way it ended, there was a great deal more to the dedicated science mission than its tragic conclusion. The planned microgravity research spanned life sciences, physical sciences, space and earth sciences, and education. More than 70 scientists were involved in the research that was conducted by Columbiaʼs seven-member crew over 16 days. This chapter outlines the history of STS-107 from its mission objectives and their rationale through the accident and its initial aftermath. The analysis of the accidentʼs causes follows in Chapter 3 and subsequent chapters.