"Forty years ago, I was at Mission Control at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for the launch of the Challenger. I was working in data communications. My job was to ensure all telemetry links between the space shuttle and NASA's ground communications system (NASCOM) were operational. Everything was green on my board, the shuttle launched, and a few seconds later, everything went to hell. I stared at my controls, tried to get things to reconnect, and then I finally looked up at the TV display."
"In schools across the country, kids from kindergartners to high school students were ready to watch Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, launch into orbit. Instead, they saw a tragedy. By 1986, space flight had become passe. Most assumed that the space shuttle could be counted on to launch flawlessly time after time. There had been disasters. But most Americans didn't know about Soyuz 1's parachute failure or the decompression of Soyuz 11."
Mission Control at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center monitored the Challenger launch while data communications personnel ensured telemetry links between the shuttle and NASCOM were operational. The shuttle cleared the pad and seconds later a catastrophic failure occurred, visible on live television and witnessed by schoolchildren nationwide expecting to see the first teacher in space. Spaceflight had been treated as routine by 1986 despite prior incidents. Post-accident investigation revealed a predicted O-ring failure risk had been raised by engineer Roger Boisjoly but was ignored by Morton Thiokol and NASA, resulting in seven deaths. Later Columbia's 2003 breakup exposed additional technical and management failures.
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