On the morning of January 28, 1986, the US prepared for a big celebration. It had to be special, because it had been postponed five times: from 3:34 p. m. He spent 22 to 23, then to 24. The 25 was postponed again due to bad weather, and 26 failed to delays. When everything was ready for 9:37 a. m. 27, a technical adjustment prevented. 28, the communication details halted for two hours, until at 11:38 a. m. finally started: the shuttle Challenger began its tenth spaceflight
The excitement of Cape Canaveral release–place, throughout the United States and around the world had become. after interest in NASA missions fall into a rut for years. It was special because for the first time, a civilian was part of the crew.
 The crew, left to right (top): Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis and Judy Resnik. In the bottom row, Mike Smith, Dick Scobee and Ron McNair. Nasa
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The choice was Christa McAuliffe, a mother of two daughters and a teacher who taught Social History at a high school in Concord (New Hampshire). Your selection among 10,690 applicants, turned it into a social icon not only for the place you occupy in history, but for sympathy. With the announcement, the US government sought to rekindle the interest of society in space exploration.
The cold that morning could not contain smiles and hugs of those attending the place launch. Among them, the parents of McAuliffe, a group of children with banners the students goodbye, curious and family and friends of the other crew: Gregory Jarvis; Judith A. Resnik; Francis R. (Dick) Scobee; Ronald E. McNair; Mike J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka and.
This morning there was no celebration. It took 73 seconds from liftoff of the shuttle and the time this disintegrated in the sky, to viewers in Cape Canaveral and the millions of viewers who followed the live broadcast.
 A cloud of smoke (highlighted) from the time of takeoff, confirmed the failure of the ship. AFP
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The flaw, which shattered in a split second smiles, hugs and illusions, engineers had been alerted by their superiors and manufacturer of propellers, Morton Thiokol. The crossing of reports there
 Fragments of the ship rescued from the Atlantic Ocean for analysis. Nasa
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After the January 28, 1986, the NASA space missions were stopped by 32 months. That delayed projects such as the launch of the Hubble telescope, which occurred in 1990, and the construction of the International Space Station, whose construction began in 1998.
They were 73 seconds historical in several events are triggered. This is evidenced, second by second, the report of the presidential commission on the accident, known as the Rogers Commission Report, that its members had to Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon; Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize in Physics, and Sally Ride, the first woman in space:
“The flight began at 11:38 local time and ended 73 seconds after a explosive burning of hydrogen and oxygen that destroyed the external tank and exposed the orbiter to severe aerodynamic loads that caused a complete structural break.
“The thrusters continued flying and were destroyed by the official Safety of Air Force 110 seconds after launch. The room temperature was just over 36 ° F (2 ° C), lower than any previous release 15 ° F.
“The latest data received telemetry reached 73.618 seconds after the release.
“At 0.678 seconds takeoff pictures showed gray smoke from the right side of the booster rocket. The cameras have been detailing the exact point not operating.
“Eight clouds of smoke over were recorded between 0.836 and 2.500 seconds.
“The last trace of smoke was seen at the junction of rocket and tank, to 2.733 seconds.
” The color and composition suggest that the smoke was burning and packaging eroded by the propellant gases.
“A very small flame is detected after 58 seconds of flight. At 62 seconds, the control system began to react to counteract the forces caused by the plume and its effects. Over the next nine seconds, the control systems of the space shuttle worked to correct anomalies.
“At 72 seconds, a series of events, which occurred very quickly, took flight to an end. Telemetry data indicate a wide variety of flight system actions that, supported by the visual evidence, show how the Shuttle struggled futilely against the forces that destroyed them.
“At 73.124 seconds, a circumferential pattern of white vapor is observed from the side of the bottom dome of the external tank. This was the beginning of the structural failure of the hydrogen tank.
“Within milliseconds massive, almost explosive burning of hydrogen from the bottom tank damaged occurs and liquid oxygen buffer tank “.
As stated in the files,” the consensus of the Commission and the agencies involved in the investigation indicates that the loss of the space shuttle Challenger was caused by a failure at the junction between two segments of the right rocket. The specific flaw was the destruction of the gaskets or seals are intended to prevent hot gases from seeping through the joint during burning rocket propellant. The evidence gathered by the Commission indicates that no other element of the space shuttle system contributed to the failure. “
Security, priority
Challenger tragedy shocked the world, as he titled TIME the day after the fact. He represented then-highest cost in lives of a space mission (its seven crew members died).
The setback that meant the Challenger explosion for the aerospace industry marked a break. The Rogers Commission made recommendations to NASA to straighten key processes to achieve historical feats as putting a telescope in space (Hubble) and build a laboratory outside the planet (International Space Station).
Among them, change the packaging that failed; NASA should establish an Office of Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance; creating systems to abort missions and the crew escape in an emergency situation, and set a rate of flight of the shuttle program in accordance with the operational capacity of the Nasa.
 First page TIME January 29, 1986. File
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Over the years it became known that engineers had already warned about possible flaws in the shuttle. Julian Sands, a mechanical engineer who did research in aerospace engineering with the University of Texas (USA), says that engineers saw that the packages had problems, having been designed to withstand not less than 10 degrees centigrade. On launch day, the temperature was 2 degrees Celsius. “What happened was that when we reported problems, bureaucratic scale was such that neither reached the decision makers,” he says.
For Arenas, also undergraduate advisor Space Engineering University of Antioquia, the accident, rather than being a matter of pure engineering, was a result of poor administrative and maintenance management processes reusable vehicle like the shuttle. “When the program raised a type airline ship watched, but almost a monthly flight, and was thought up in weekly flights. In a vehicle that should be easy to maintain, and that was not true, “he insists.
Between 1981 and 2011, the space shuttle program left 135 missions in five ships. For experts, a technological marvel, but complex. “That complexity was underestimated in the early years of the program, and partly that’s the result, with the tragedy of the Challenger,” adds Arenas.
“Among the lessons learned about the Challenger is the redesign of the system. NASA took away the pressure of military and commercial missions, which led ultimately to the shuttle left its initial target. It was a very complex vehicle to its task. In addition, it was established only launch from Florida, so the platform is closed in California, “said Arenas.
The last days of January and early February were marked in the history of space exploration and sad. Today, the United States will pay tribute to quiene left their lives with the illusion show mankind the universe, especially the three crew of Apollo 1 that the January 27, 1967 died in a fire during a test launch, seven Challenger crew, and seven crew of the shuttle Columbia who died on February 2003, minutes before returning to Earth.
Nicolas Gutierrez
Editor Congote TIME
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