By Amy Kronenberger
In the midst of extraordinary success came the sacrifices of the brave, of those willing to put their lives on the line for the advancement of science and exploration. NASA has helped define America, its astronauts becoming the heroes of children everywhere, who dared to look to the heavens and dream big.
However, NASA’s amazing advancements would not be possible without the sacrifice of those brave men and women who gave their lives for a cause so much bigger than themselves. This week in history, we remember the astronauts of Apollo 1 and Challenger.
Just as Present John Kennedy made his historic promise to go to the moon “before this decade is out,” NASA charged boldly forward, accepting the daunting and seemingly impossible task of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely home again before the 1960s came to an end. Against all odds they worked night and day on the new Apollo program to achieve such a goal.
Apollo 1 was to be the program’s first manned mission, which would take the three-man command and service module into Earth orbit. The three men chosen to crew Apollo 1 were Command Pilot Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White and Pilot Roger Chaffee.
On January 27, 1967 the three astronauts, in full suit, climbed into the command module for a routine test and training exercise. After the men were strapped into their seats and the hatch was sealed on their tiny craft, Grissom, White and Chaffee endured hours of tedious complications that continued to put the test on hold.
Then, 10 seconds after a voltage transient was recorded, Chaffee said, “Hey…” Three seconds of scuffling sounds followed this and then Chaffee said, “Fire! We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!” And White echoed, “We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!”
There was 10 seconds of more scuffling movement and Chaffee yelled, “We've got a bad fire! Let's get out! We're burning up! We're on fire! Get us out of here!”
After only 17 seconds from the time the crew first saw the fire, the transmission ended with a scream of pain and the astronauts were lost. Rescuers couldn’t get to them quickly enough.
As America and the world mourned the loss of three of its heroes, NASA moved on, determined to continue the work of Grissom, White, Chaffee and make the dreams of the assassinated president a reality. Just two and a half short years later, NASA Successfully put man on the moon and returned him safely home again.
Nineteen years almost to the day after the Apollo 1 tragedy, On January 28, 1986, another NASA disaster would unfold. However, this time it would not just be witnessed by those working at NASA. This time it would unfold before the eyes of the world, before the eyes of friends and family of the seven crew members, before the eyes of children across the world who sat watching in their classrooms.
Just 73 seconds after liftoff, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart and disintegrated after hitting a powerful wind shear just when it reached the maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle. This brought the load factor (the ratio of lift to weight on an aircraft) to 20g, well above the 5g the ship was built to handle. As a result of the disintegration, liquid hydrogen fuel was released and produced a large fireball.
Despite the fireball, the spacecraft never actually exploded, it merely fell apart. The crew compartment separated from the rest of the craft and freefell into the ocean. Though no one is quite sure what happened to the crew, investigators believe most, if not all the crew were still alive after the disintegration. However, the sudden depressurization of the cabin at the altitude of 48,000 feet would have caused the crew to lose consciousness within a few seconds. Investigators believe most of the crew died from the impact of hitting the ocean.
As the world watched in horror, the crew of challenger fell from the sky. The crew, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik and Christa McAuliffe, who was the first teacher-astronaut of the Teacher in Space Project, will forever live in our hearts along with the astronauts of Apollo 1. We will forever remember all those who put their lives on the line and even gave their lives for the advancement of science and understanding.
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Mars or bust!