Friday, November 8, 2013

The Shuttle That Never Landed

By April Renzella


            It was supposed to be a day of excitement and new beginnings but just moments after taking flight, NASA’s space shuttle Challenger had blown up, just 73 seconds after launching, before the world’s eyes.
            Ann Tortorella watched in disbelief at the hospital’s television set. She heard screaming through the speakers, silence from the announcers, and what she saw was a cloud of smoke consuming the shuttle until there was nothing more to see.
            No matter where she ventured, everyone inside of Melrose-Wakefield hospital was talking about the tragedy that took place at 11:39:13  Eastern Standard time that day.
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            Flash back  two days earlier, Ann was with her husband Paul at his mother’s house. It was January 26, 1986, Super Bowl Sunday, and the New England Patriots were about to get crushed by the Chicago Bears, 46-10.
            While watching the game, Ann’s mother-in-law started to get chest pains and was rushed to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. She had a heart attack and needed triple bypass surgery, leaving her in the hospital for several days.
            So while Ann and Paul went back and forth to the hospital to visit his mother, Ann kept up with what was going on with the Challenger.
            “I remember how exciting it was,” she would say later. “There was a lot of interest in New England.”
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            Interest in New England was sparked by one of the members of the flight crew, Christa McAuliffe. Born in Boston on September 2, 1948, Christa was a Framingham State College alum and a high school teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. She was a local, normal woman with an interest in space.
            Her dream was to ride in a space shuttle. This was about to come to fruition when she won the National Aeronautics and Space Administration contest. Out of 11,000 people, Christa was chosen for the mission. Vice President George H.W. Bush announced her name at the White House stating that she would be the “first private citizen passenger in the history of space flight.”
            After receiving the news she traveled to Houston to the Johnson Space Center in September 1985 to participate in training.
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            In the days leading up to the launch, which was rescheduled several times, Ann, as well as the country, was waiting to see the first civilian, a woman from New England, blast off into space.
            Christa was now a household name. Newspaper articles, interviews, and appearances all focused on the teacher and her soon to be first time in space.
            Ann was sitting in the hospital, watching the pre-flight interviews with the flight crew. All of the stations were broadcasting the “pre-show” and all were broadcasting the flight that would take place just shortly after 11:30 am on January 28.
            Ann and the country watched in anticipation as the countdown began at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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            “10…9…8…7…6…we have main engine start…4…3…2…1, and lift off. Lift off!”
            The crowd cheered.
            And at a velocity of 2,900 feet per second, the Challenger exploded.
            The sky lit up white with clouds. Sounds of people crying could be heard in the crowd.
            “Flight controlers here looking very carefully here at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.”
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Photo from USA Today: www.usatoday.com
            Ann watched as the shuttle blew up, killing all of its passengers. She walked down the hospital corridor and all that was heard were people’s reactions to the explosion. She entered the elevator to get food. The Challenger was being spoken about. She went into the cafeteria. People were eating, buzzing about what the nation had just witnessed.
            No one knew what had happened. Not even NASA.
            “All day long they just kept playing the same thing,” she said. “It was all you watched for days after.”
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            That night President Reagan addressed the union in a speech about the disaster.
            “Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts to a terrible accident on the ground. But we’ve never lost an astronaut in flight. We’ve never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle, but they, the Challenger 7, were aware of the dangers and overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly.”
            President Reagan then listed off the names of the astronauts that America was mourning that night.
            “Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnick, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.”
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            It would be months until NASA figured out that the explosion was caused by a 39 cent faulty o-ring.  
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            The families of the astronauts founded the Challenger Center for Space Science Education program. This program makes it possible for students to experience simulated space missions in memory of the Challenger 7.
            In addition, NASA takes a day every year to pause and reflect upon the last crew to aboard Challenger as well as other crews who have been lost pursing a mission in space during NASA Day of Remembrance, on January 28, the day the Challenger exploded.

End Notes
"Christa McAuliffe Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Howell, Elizabeth. "Challenger: Shuttle Disaster That Changed NASA." Space.com. N.p., 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Pierson, Don. "The Chicago Bears Win the 1986 Super Bowl." Chicagotribune.com. N.p., 26 Jan. 1986. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Yagoda, Ben. "Fact-Checking "In Cold Blood": What the New Yorkers Fact Checker Missed." Slate Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2013.
YouTube Videos Used
Challenger: President Reagan’s Challenger Disaster Speech
CNN: Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Interviewee
Ann Tortorella
           

            

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