The Challenger Disaster “Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain,” said President Ronald Reagan on January 28, 1986 as he spoke of the Challenger’s tragic event. STS 51-L was in the beginning stage of the United States’ space shuttle program. The space shuttle Challenger exploded after seventy-three seconds of glory and fame. It involved the death of seven crewmembers including the first civilian (Teacher-in-Space) chosen to go into space and it also destroyed the orbiter’s satellite cargo.
When Neil Armstrong first touched down on the moon in 1969, millions of people watched him take the first step and create history (Villard). Yet even as we’ve moved on from the moon landings and consider them as a pivotal point for mankind, “Forty years after U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, many conspiracy theorists still insist the Apollo 11 moon landing was an elaborate hoax”(Than). The idea that our voyage to the moon was deliberately staged seems to resurface year after year. While the conspiracy theorists claim the moon landing was a hoax, creating a fake moon landing would have been more expensive and difficult than actually reaching the moon. The race to the moon began on October 5, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit around the earth: “When the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, on October 4, 1957, the United States experienced a technological identity crisis”(Olson).
February 1, 2013 marked the ten year anniversary of the shuttle Columbia disaster that took the lives of seven crew members. President Obama issued a statement recently marking the anniversary. "Ten years ago, seven brave astronauts gave their lives in the name of exploration when America's first flight-ready space shuttle, Columbia, failed to return safely to Earth” (USA Today). On this day ten years ago several hundred people anxiously gathered at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the landing of space shuttle Columbia following 16 days in space; however the craft and its crew never arrived. What could NASA have done differently to prevent the disaster?
The Challenger Explosion NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger originally was scheduled for launch on January 22, 1986. A crew of seven was assigned which included: Commander Richard Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, and Mission Specialists Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair were astronauts. Gregory Jarvis, an aerospace engineer, and Christa McAuliffe a history teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, had been trained as a payload specialist. McAuliffe’s assignment—to teach elementary students from space—gave the Challenger a special aura. Officially known as Space Transportation System (STS) mission 51-L, became publicly known as the “Teacher in Space” mission, despite the scientific and technical assignments of the other crew members.
He spoke not only to the citizens of society in the United States but to spirited individuals around the whole world. Not only inspiring the imaginations of millions but giving these individuals hope in an era of problems (Tesh). John F Kennedy spoke of the Apollo space program that will accommodate the endeavors the nation will face on exploration of the moon. It is to be said that this trip to the moon will be one of man kind’s greatest achievements. Kennedy addressed Yuri Gagarin, who was the first person in space, the Soviet Union, United States, and all other innovated countries.
Space Flight: Challenger Disaster On January 28th, 1986, the first shuttle disaster that resulted in loss of life had occurred. This is not to say that there had been other incidents, but this was the first incident that resulted in catastrophic mission failure and a total loss of crew aboard the space shuttle. In 1976, NASA revealed the first reusable spacecraft, named today, the space shuttle. In 5 years the first shuttle mission would take place, headed by the space shuttle Columbia, it wouldn’t be until 1983 that Challenger, NASA’s second shuttle would take its’ maiden voyage flight. Challenger would have 9 successful missions prior to 1986.
The Challenger and Columbia Shuttle Disasters Americans are all too familiar with disasters at NASA with space shuttle Challenger and later, the space shuttle Columbia. This paper looks at these disasters from a management perspective and the issues that NASA had with sustaining change. Discussed in this paper are the changes that NASA implemented after the Challenger disaster and how it was revealed later in the aftermath of Columbia that those changes were not sustained. Also discussed in this paper are the actions for sustaining change of redesigning roles, redesigning reward systems, linking selection decision, measuring progress, celebrating en route and fine-tuning may have contributed to the changes being sustained. Lastly discussed are the unanticipated outcomes that NASA failed to recognize.
There were five other Apollo missions that also landed astronauts on the moon. The last mission was in 1972. The six Apollo spaceflights were the only times that a human has ever landed on a celestial body. The Apollo program specifically the lunar landings, are often cited as the greatest achievement in human history. So which brings us to a great starting point of being able to address this question, what was the famous speech by JFK when declared that the United States would take a trip to the moon while in this decade not because this would be an easy task.
Millions of people worldwide watched him plant the American flag on the moon, which is symbol of the success of the nation as a whole. His mission and safe return are widely recognized to be among America's greatest accomplishments of the 20th century. The idea that successful space explorations can result the unification of United States as a nation demonstrates the notion that the benefits space exploration brings to society is worth the cost. Further space exploration could
Speculation that the moon landings were faked began circulating almost as soon as the Apollo 11 landed back on Earth. Bill Kaysing, author of ‘We Never Went to the Moon: Americas 30 Billion Dollar Swindle’, is often credited with being the leader of the moon landing conspiracy theories. He was also featured in ‘Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?’. The show created a stir and is credited with reviving speculation that the landings were a hoax. After the broadcast, NASA was bombarded with so many questions from the public that it was forced to post an official answer on its website.