Important Events In The 1986 Challenger

Important events are quickly spread across the world in various ways. From social media to the news, these stories are revealed. Even though each occurrence happened in a specific way, different publications can display the story differently. Producers of the publications have multiple opinions and can have a biased effect toward their subject. This leads the media to having a big influence on what people believe, if true or not. Over time history can be changed into a different story. As stated in 1984, "All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place" (51). This is why the thought,
"Which sources are actually reliable nowadays", runs through people's minds. Through the examination of the sources that go into depth with the 1986 Challenger, there are sources that can be relied on more than others.
Although newspapers and articles can be reliable, the news and television are the most reliable sources. On January 28, 1986, a disaster struck America. An American shuttle, called the Challenger exploded into thin air. On board of the ship were seven adults, including a teacher as a special guest. The members included Sharon Christa McAuliffe (the teacher), Gregory Jarvis (payload specialist), and the astronauts Judith A. Resnik, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Ronald E. McNair, Mike J. Smith, and Ellison S. Onizuka. Each crew member tragically died in the accident. Sharon Chrita McAuliffe was chosen from eleven thousand applicants to aboard the Challenger. From 1984 to 1985 McAuliffe trained with NASA to be able to be approved to join the shuttle. Gregory B. Jarvis was a payload specialist who had formally worked for Hughes Aircraft Corp.'s Space and Communications Group in Los Angeles, California. Judith A. Resnik was a mission specialist and was chosen as a NASA astronaut in January 1978. Francis R. (Dick) Scobee was the spacecraft commander of the shuttle. Scobee was the pilot of another shuttle
called STS-41-C, where an important mission of repairing the Solar Maximum Satellite and returning it to orbit was completed. Ronald E. McNair was another mission specialist on the Challenger. McNair is known for being the second African American who went into space between February 3 and 11 in 1984. Michael J. Smith was the pilot for the Challenger and was chosen as an astronaut for NASA in May 1980. Ellison S. Onizuka was the third mission specialist of the Challenger and was also a mission specialist on his first Shuttle mission on January twenty-fourth through the twenty-seventh aboard the STS-51-C on the Discovery orbiter. With all seven crew members, the Challenger exploded around 11:40 A.M. This devastating experience happened only seventy three seconds after the space shuttle took off. After investigating the space shuttle to see what went wrong it was found that the O-ring seal on the rocket booster failed. After the failure flames came out of the booster which harmed the external fuel tank. This caused the explosion of the Challenger and the death of the seven crew members. Many news stations broadcasted the take off of the Challenger live. One of these news stations includes the National Broadcasting Company or NBC. NBC included the voice of launch control Hugh Harris who spoke about the Challenger and counted down until its liftoff. As soon as the space shuttle lifted off the news reporter of NBC, Kent Shocknek, talked about how it was doing. The news reporter takes a break from speaking for a couple of seconds then he says, "This shuttle mission will launch..." (NBC), Shocknek paused because the Challenger exploded right then. He goes onto say, "There's been an explosion. This is not standard. This is not something that is planned of course" (NBC). Shocknek tried to remain calm and continue speaking about what he saw. He is confused on what exactly happened and states that he can see a rocket booster but not the actual shuttle. He states, "I hope they were able to survive. I hope the astronauts..." (NBC). An object flys down to earth and the reporter believes it is a piece of debris. The news reporter later assumes that the crew is not alive. Kent Shocknek shockingly states how he has "Covered the space shuttle launches since the very first launch...and nothing like this has ever happened" (NBC). Later in the day after this tragedy president Ronald Reagan gave a speech. His speech coming from him in the Oval Office, was shown everywhere and was to help everyone cope and understand what had happened that day even though at that time he wasn't one hundred percent sure what went wrong. In an episode of 60 Minute Overtime, the problem that went wrong with the shuttle was talked about. It was told that two engineers warned NASA to not launch the shuttle because it was not safe (due to the rocket boosters that the engineers helped build). Many other people also believed the shuttle was not safe to launch and it should stay grounded. Even though this occurred, the shuttle was launched and eventually the problem revealed to be that the O rings (the circular rings that seal the joints at ignition) could not survive the cold weather and they became fragile which caused the accident. The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is a highly reliable source because as soon as information that everyone should be informed about is gathered, it is presented on NBC. NBC keeps everyone updated on the top stories with the facts. 60 Minute Overtime proved to be reliable because people that worked hands on with the Challenger were brought in to speak. By this point in time the question as to what happened was answered and it was explained in 60 Minute Overtime. The day following the horrific explosion, January 29, 1986, a newspaper article was published by Dailey News about the catastrophe. The author of the article, Charles B. Well, wrote about the delay of the of the launch at 9:08 a.m. because of the ice that had formed. The inspections team inspected it and the launch was back on two hours later. Right after everyone heard Hugh Harris announce the countdown to one, the shuttle lifted off and was smooth sailing with a normal length of fire trailing behind. The Challenger "...was engulfed in a ball of flame" (Bell), one minute and twelve seconds after it was launched. This spread quickly as viewers rushed over to the President to let him know of then incident, and he then postponed his State of the Union Address in order to make a speech about the crisis. According to NASA, everything seemed entirely normal up until the unfortunate ending happened. After viewing the Challenger after the explosion the fuel tank that held over 525,000 gallons of valotile liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellant, was found to be ruptured. The Challenger being torn apart was blamed on this. The newspaper article published by Daily News is reliable but lacks the answer to all questions. It is reliable for the first part of the story, who was involved, when it happened, where it happened, what happened, what the response was. On the other hand, since this newspaper came out a day after the explosion, it was not able to provide a one hundred percent correct answer as to why the shuttle blew up. Charles B. Well wrote about a strong hypothesis that was given as to why it blew up, but not a dominant answer. On January 28, 2017, thirty-one years after the distraught of the Challenger, an article named This Day in History: Challenger Space Shuttle Explosion Kills Seven gives a recap of the day.
As the shuttle was getting ready for take off at the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, Americans (including many children in schools) watched live on television. As soon as the shuttle took for take off it only stayed in the air seventy three seconds until shattering. To deal with the crisis President Ronald Reagan took it into his own hands to send a message out to America. He mentions to the school children that, "...tragedy is sometimes part of the process of expanding our horizons" (This Day in History: Challenger Space Shuttle Explosion Kills Seven). He then speaks of the Challenger crew and how they pulled us into the future. Eventually the problem that caused the accident was revealed and it is described in the article Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster FAQ: What Went Wrong. The author of this article, Denise Chow writes of the undependable O-ring that failed. Chow describes how, "...an O-ring, on the shuttle's right solid rocket booster had failed at liftoff, allowing pressurized hot gas to escape from inside the booster" (Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster FAQ: What Went Wrong). This led to the breakage between the rocket booster and the external tank which led to the explosion. The first article, This Day in History: Challenger Space Shuttle Explosion
Kills Seven was a good article for the main parts of the news story. It included the main parts of the story, but not the reason behind the explosion, and it did not go into depth with any part. The second article, Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster FAQ: What Went Wrong. is very reliable on mainly on what went wrong with the shuttle. It goes into depth of what went wrong, what was the aftermath, how did the crew members pass, what led to the accident, where the accident occurred, and when the accident occurred.