(1) mission, astronauts and accident process

According to the original plan, the first flight of the space shuttle Challenger 10 was carried out in July 1985. However, the launch date has been postponed to1986 65438+1October 28th due to the adjustment and change of mission and payload, technical failure, climate and other reasons.

The main tasks of challenger flight are:

(l) Carrying and launching a "tracking and data relay satellite" (this will ensure communication between the space shuttle and 23 other satellites);

(2) Carry and launch a "Sparta-Halley Satellite" (the satellite is equipped with special instruments for observing Halley's comet. When Halley's comet is too close to the sun to be observed by other observation stations, the above-mentioned special instruments will observe the activity of Halley's comet, and then recover the satellite to the payload cabin of the space shuttle and bring it back to the ground);

(3) Carry out scientific research such as hydrodynamics experiment, phase discrimination experiment and radiation detection experiment;

(4) Conduct space teaching and some basic classroom experiments;

(5) Complete the experimental scheme designed by young students and so on.

1985 1 month, one year before the actual launch, NASA announced the list of astronauts who carried out this mission:

Commander Francis Scobie.

Driver michael smith.

Mission expert Ellison Onijuka

Mission expert Judith resnick

Mission expert Ronald mcnair

Francis Scobie, the commander of this flight, made the first space shuttle flight as a pilot of Challenger in April 1984. Mr. Scobie was born in Auburn, Washington, and received a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Arizona. He is an air force test pilot, flying 45 kinds of aircraft for 7000 hours. He became an astronaut from 65438 to 0978.

The pilot, michael smith, is a Beaufort, North Carolina, captain of the US Navy. 1967 graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a master's degree from the Naval Graduate School. He is an experienced naval test pilot and has flown many kinds of aircraft. 1980 was elected as an astronaut. This is his first time in the space shuttle.

Ellison Onijuka, a mission expert, is from Kilaukwa, Kona, Hawaii, and holds a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado. He is a test engineer, an air force pilot and an air force lieutenant colonel. He became an astronaut in 1978, and flew the space shuttle discovery for the first military mission in 1985+ 10.

Judith resnick, a mission expert and doctor of science, participated in the first flight of the orbiter Discovery in August 1984. The female doctor was born in Akron, Ohio, and 1976 received her doctorate in electronic engineering from the University of Maryland. After working in several industrial companies, she became an astronaut in 1978.

Dr Ronald mcnair, a mission expert, came from Lake City, South Carolina, and received his Ph.D. degree in physics from MIT in 1976. As a physicist, he became an astronaut in 1978 after working in the civil industrial sector, and made his first space flight on Challenger in February 1984.

Payload experts are full members of the space shuttle crew, but they are not full-time astronauts.

In addition to the above-mentioned members, two other invited experts participated in the flight, namely Krista mcauliffe and Gregory Jarvis.

Mcauliffe, female, 37 years old, was born in Boston, grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts, and graduated from Framingham State University. She teaches American history, law and economics in middle and high schools in Maryland and New Hampshire. She is a prestigious sociology teacher. More than a year ago, she learned the news that an astronaut was about to be selected among civilians through the car radio. "Today," President Reagan said, "I ordered NASA to start selecting the best American teacher from all primary and secondary schools in the country as the first citizen passenger in the history of our space program." From then on, full of confidence and joy, after several months of rigorous testing and screening, this female teacher finally stood out from 1 1000 applicants and became the first civilian astronaut and space teacher in the United States. On the second day after the radio reported the results of this selection, the citizens of Concord, where Krista mcauliffe lived, held a warm celebration ceremony and parade in the city square. When Krista came to the square accompanied by her husband and children, people flocked to shake hands, hug and ask for her autograph. The mayor unexpectedly put a baton into her hand and asked her to direct the band to play home of the brave. People applauded in time. Later, Concord declared August 6th Christa mcauliffe Day.

1985 In July, mcauliffe was assigned to take part in the flight of Challenger 10. It is fascinating that a history teacher will personally create history and write brilliant chapters in history.

Mr Gregory Jarvis is an air force engineer, specializing in satellite design. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, and received a doctorate in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston. As a representative of Hughes Aircraft Company, he was appointed as one of the members to take part in this flight on June 1985+00. During this flight, he will complete a series of fluid dynamics experiments, which will help to redesign the satellite.

Every member of the Challenger crew shoulders his great and sacred responsibility. They are all excellent people and enviable outstanding representatives.

1986 65438+1October 28th, at1kloc-0/38 am EDT, the space shuttle Challenger stood solemnly at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was freezing at that time, and the temperature was MINUS 5℃. Ice is piled up on the launch pad, and 1 foot long icicles are hung on the frame of fixed service facilities. The severe cold is a great threat to the launch of the space shuttle.

Tens of thousands of spectators are not afraid of the cold, sitting excitedly in the stands of the launch site, anxiously waiting for that exciting and spectacular moment.

At this time, more people are sitting beside the TV set excitedly.

The countdown has begun. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six ... main engine on!" "Four, three, two, one, ignite!"

"Challenger" carrying its seven crew members and other loads, with people's heartfelt entrustment, but also with hidden dangers that are not perceived but will undoubtedly exist, slowly lifted off in the deafening roar! At this time, the voice of naisbitt's explanation from the radio has been drowned out by the cheers in the stands. This is the most dangerous moment in the whole flight, and Kennedy and the controllers of Houston Space Center closely monitor the huge roar of the engine. 16 seconds after liftoff, the challengers turned around one by one, with their backs down and their hips up. Within 35 seconds, the main engine decelerates to 65% of full speed to prevent the orbiter shell from overheating and breaking when passing through the high-altitude turbulence zone. Commentator naisbitt declared the takeoff normal: "The three engines are operating normally. The fuel tank and auxiliary power equipment are in good condition. The speed is 2257 feet per second and the altitude is 4.3 nautical miles. After 52 seconds, the ground console informed the commander Scobie to restore the engine to full speed. At this time, the space shuttle was approaching the sound barrier and encountered huge air pressure. The main engine is accelerated to 104% of the normal speed, and the solid fuel rocket booster has burned nearly1000 billion pounds of solid fuel. All the data displayed on the computer screen are normal. By the time Commander Scobie reported to the ground that the main engine was accelerating, the flight time had passed 70 seconds.

Three seconds later, an orange fireball suddenly appeared in the sky, then divided into many small forks, dragging flames and white smoke around. The two solid fuel rocket boosters completely broke away from the fireball and dragged the white smoke column, and continued to fly forward in a "V" shape because of out of control (Figure 5-4). At this time, on the TV screen of the flight control center, the data sent by Challenger suddenly stopped, and the radio contact with the cockpit and the whole telemetry system signal came to an abrupt end. In order to prevent two solid fuel booster rockets from falling into densely populated areas, an operator of Cape Canaveral Launch Center activated its self-explosive device to detonate it. Forty seconds later, naisbitt announced in a heavy voice: "The flight controller confirmed that the space shuttle exploded." .

No matter how unwilling people are to believe what they have heard with their own ears and seen with their own eyes, no matter how unwilling people are to accept what is happening at this moment, the cruel fact is that the space shuttle worth $65.438+$200 million has been destroyed, and all seven astronauts on board have been killed. The solid rocket booster rushed out of the flame and crossed into a "V". After the explosion, the wreckage and debris of the plane fell 30 kilometers away from the launch site at 28.64 north latitude and 80.20 west longitude. This is the worst disaster in manned space flight for 25 years.

Millions of viewers in the United States who watched the launch in front of TV sets witnessed the amazing scene of the explosion.

Hundreds of students from Concord Middle School gathered in the school cafeteria to watch the launch of Challenger on TV, which carried their admired teacher mcauliffe. They are in high spirits. They cheered loudly and excitedly when the plane took off. They all burst into tears when they learned that the plane had exploded. A teacher quickly turned off the TV. The students were quickly taken back to the classroom. Parents received a phone call from the school, and the grieving children were taken home one by one.

On the day of the space shuttle Challenger's launch, an Eastern Airlines plane just took off from Boston and flew to Miami 60 kilometers east of Cape Canaveral. On the same day, due to the temporary change of the launch time of Challenger, the take-off time of the plane was repeatedly postponed. In this regard, all 135 passengers in the car have no complaints. In fact, everyone is very concerned about this flight of the space shuttle, and everyone's heart is closely related to the warriors who explore the universe.

The plane finally took off. On the way, the pilot asked the ground weatherman about the launch of the space shuttle with concern by radio.

"Has the space shuttle taken off?"

After a silence, the weatherman replied, "It took off, … but … it exploded a minute after it left the ground."

There was silence on the radio.

"You mean, Challenger crashed? ! "The driver asked. "Yes, I think so."

The driver sat silently in the engine room, staring straight at the endless sky ahead, and no one spoke, and his mind was full of lucky hopes. "No, it's impossible!"

While struggling with grief, the pilots saw a huge, floating white cloud belt floating over the waters of Wan Li, Florida through the porthole. This is the steam produced after the explosion of the space shuttle.

The crew had to tell the passengers the bad news with deep feelings and asked the only priest among the passengers to lead them in prayer. The priest first read the 23rd hymn in the Bible with his rich voice, and finally prayed for the astronauts and their families who died. Every passenger hangs his head and every heart is pulling. When the plane landed at Miami airport, the captain and the priest stood by the door and silently watched the passengers file down. Although they are different in age and gender, they all look solemn and heavy, and many people wipe their tears while walking.

When the space shuttle suddenly exploded, the US House of Representatives was preparing for a meeting. This sudden incident shocked the whole Congress. James David Ford, the pastor of the House of Representatives, stepped onto the platform and said, "At this special moment, let's observe a moment of silence for the crew of the space shuttle." After a moment of silent prayer, the House of Representatives adjourned for two hours. Throughout capitol hill, staff, senators and congressmen gathered around the TV and watched the development of this tragedy silently.

When the explosion happened, President Reagan was having a meeting with his senior aides. Vice President Bush and National Security Adviser poindexter brought the unexpected news. So the participants immediately went to the nearest TV and watched the video of the incident. White House spokesman Speakes later said: "You can see the expression of anxiety, anxiety and sadness on the president's face." "When watching the TV video, the president was so shocked that he could hardly speak." A few hours later, President Reagan addressed the nation and announced: "I originally planned to deliver a State of the Union address to you tonight. But what happened earlier today made me change my original plan. Today is a day of mourning and commemoration. " Then he said, "Nancy and I are deeply saddened by the tragedy that happened on the Challenger. We know that people all over the country are as deeply saddened as we are. ..... This is indeed a loss for the country. ..... I have always trusted and respected our space program, and what happened today will never degrade its reputation. We will continue to explore space. There will be more space flights and more space pilots in the future. Yes, there will be more volunteers, more civilians and more teachers in space. "

The grief caused by the Challenger air crash is national. This is no less than the assassination of President Kennedy. The vibration caused by the explosion of Challenger is worldwide. The news system all over the world reported the incident. Even the Tass news agency, which has always been very reserved, quickly reported the news, although the report from new york only contained one sentence: "The American space shuttle Challenger exploded just after taking off today." News organizations in the former Soviet Union used to criticize the American space shuttle program and accuse it of being used for military purposes.

The day after the incident, President Li Xiannian called President Reagan to express his condolences over the death of the American astronaut. The telegram said: "I was shocked to learn that seven astronauts of the space shuttle Challenger in your country were killed. On behalf of the government of China and the people of China, I would like to express my deepest sympathy and condolences to your government and people and sincere condolences to the families of the victims. "

(2) Investigation of the cause of the accident

The "Challenger" air crash caused a strong response and great shock in the United States and even the world. The American government attaches great importance to this incident. 1On February 3rd, 986, President Reagan issued an executive order and decided to immediately set up an investigation committee on the cause of the Challenger explosion. According to the order, members of the Committee will be drawn from prestigious * * * in the government, scientific and technological circles and management departments. The chairman and vice-chairman of the Committee will be appointed by the President. The tasks of the Committee are:

(1) In-depth investigation1The explosion accident of the space shuttle Challenger on June 28th, 986.

(2) Complete the following two tasks:

1) Review all the circumstances surrounding the accident to determine the possible or direct cause of the accident;

2) According to the investigation results and decisions made, put forward future improvement measures or other action plans.

(3) The Committee shall submit its final report to the President and the Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration within 120 days from the date of issuance of this Order.

At the same time, President Reagan appointed former Secretary of State William Rogers as the chairman of the investigation committee, and neil armstrong, the first astronaut to land on the moon, as the vice chairman. The whole committee consists of 13 people. These members are the most experienced and outstanding members who have nothing to do with this flight and are selected and transferred from various government departments, arms and services and administrative departments.

As soon as the investigation committee was appointed and established, it immediately began to investigate, and with the full support of the White House, it held a series of public hearings on the relevant facts of the accident. At the meeting, NASA officials briefly introduced the history of the space shuttle program and NASA's investigation of the Challenger explosion accident. Later, according to the Committee's suggestion, NASA released a lot of information. Doing so proves that all aspects of the accident are under investigation, and all the circumstances will be made public in a comprehensive and detailed way. This helps to appease the public. For such an important event that attracts worldwide attention and attracts the attention of the whole country, especially in an open country like the United States, the investigation can only adopt this open and fully exposed method.

Of course, according to the needs of national interests, hearings sometimes have to be held in secret. At a secret hearing on February 10, the investigation Committee was informed that the solid rocket engine of the space shuttle had found problems in the connection parts and seals in the past. In addition, the Committee learned for the first time that Morton polysulfide rubber company, as a contractor, put forward a proposal not to approve the launch on June 27, 65438, the day before the launch, because it considered the influence of low temperature on connectors and seals. In order to further clarify this disturbing and important situation, the Committee arranged two secret hearings on February 13 and February 14 respectively. At the meeting on February 13, we carefully watched and reviewed the movies, TV and telemetry related to the Challenger crash. For the first time, this meeting provided the investigation Committee with evidence about the crash caused by the failure of connectors and seals of solid rocket motors.

In order to find out the cause of the accident accurately, the Committee divided into four groups to conduct in-depth investigation. Their tasks are divided as follows:

(1) R&D and production investigation team are responsible for investigating the acquisition, testing and evaluation process of space shuttle parts.

(2) The pre-launch activity investigation team is responsible for evaluating the system processing, launch preparation and pre-launch safety of the space shuttle.

(3) Mission design and implementation investigation team, responsible for investigating issues such as mission design and implementation, launch schedule pressure, and occupant safety.

(4) The accident analysis investigation team is responsible for analyzing the data related to the accident, and finding out the interrelationships of various abnormal phenomena and the details of the accident.

After the establishment of the investigation team, a large number of investigations by the investigation team were carried out at the same time according to all the materials provided by the hearing.

For example, the accident analysis and investigation team headed by Major General Donald Kutnar visited the Kennedy and Marshall Space Centers several times to investigate, and went deep into the facilities of Utah polysulfide rubber company to review the photos taken, telemetry data and aircraft wreckage salvaged by rescue teams, and also supervised the experiments conducted by NASA and polysulfide rubber company.

The R&D and production investigation team headed by Joseph Sartre began to investigate the production and test activities of the space shuttle parts manufacturing company from Johnson Space Center.

……

At the same time, each group conducted an in-depth investigation, and a general group of the Committee also started the investigation. They held a series of separate meetings and interviewed all relevant personnel. The purpose is to enable the investigation Committee to explain the problem according to the actual background of related fields when writing the investigation report. These areas include telephone records between officials of NASA and polysulfide rubber company on the eve of launch; The history of joint design and O-ring problems: the role and existing problems of NASA in safety, reliability and quality assurance; Assembly of the booster of Challenger solid rocket. In addition, the organizational efficiency of NASA was investigated, especially the organizational efficiency of the space shuttle program and the external pressure to launch Challenger.

In total, the Committee interviewed more than 65,438+060 people, held 35 formal hearings, recorded 65,438+02,000 pages of meeting minutes, obtained 2,800 pages of testimony and reviewed 6,300 documents (a total of 65,438+022,000 pages and hundreds of photos).

It lasted for 4 months and cost nearly 654.38 million +0 million dollars. The investigation Committee sent a complete and detailed investigation report to President Reagan on June 9, 1986. The report comprehensively analyzes the direct and historical causes of the space shuttle crash with a large number of physical evidence, exposes some shortcomings in the management of NASA, and finally puts forward targeted improvement measures.

It should also be mentioned that the staff of NASA also made great efforts in this survey. NASA has deployed more than 65,438+0,300 employees from various departments to cooperate with this work. Government departments and contracting companies of NASA also gave strong support, sending more than 1600 people and 3 1000 people to participate in the survey respectively. In particular, the military department, maritime patrol and national transportation safety board all played an important role in salvaging and analyzing the space shuttle Challenger.

(iii) Findings

The impact of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger is enormous and far-reaching. This incident shows that the problems existing in the development of the American space program are quite serious and multifaceted. According to the investigation results of the investigation Committee, the direct technical cause of the air crash was the failure of the pressure seal at the rear assembly joint of the solid rocket engine on the right side of the space shuttle. This failure is caused by wrong design and abnormal reaction to a series of factors. These factors include temperature, part size, material characteristics, reusability, processing and joint response to dynamic load.

The assembly joint problem of space shuttle solid rocket booster began with design mistakes and has been exposed many times in previous launches. However, the management departments of NASA and the contracting company always solve the problem temporarily, without giving due attention and thorough solution, so that the space shuttle flies again and again with this serious hidden danger and avoids the risk of escalation again and again.

The problems existing in the management of the space agency are also manifested in the shortage of personnel responsible for safety, reliability and quality assurance in the whole space program, and they have hardly played any role. During the whole accident investigation, their voices were hardly heard. This scene surprised the investigation Committee.

The shortcomings in the decision-making process of NASA are also obvious. Its performance is that the decision-makers who launched on June 28, 65438/KLOC-0 knew nothing about the historical problems existing in the joints of solid rocket engines and the suggestions of contracting companies (especially engineers and technicians) against launching at extremely low temperature that day. Of course, the cause of the space shuttle crash also comes from social aspects. For example, the demand for military and civil space shuttles is too great and the pressure on NASA is too great.