NASA SPACE DISASTERS

NASA’S SPACE DISASTERS
Apollo 1 was the first manned rocket ship that never had taken off. During a test mission the capsule caught fire. The three men crew were “Virgil I, (Gus) Grissom, Ed White, And Roger B. Chaffee.
At the time of the fire they had no idea what had caused the fire. They were guessing at numerous things, such as too much “too much oxygen, faulty wiring, flammable materials, and the hatch that would not open from the inside.”
“They had 2 sets of backup crew for this mission. They were James McDivitt, David Scott, and Rusty Schweickart”. The second set of crew were supposed to be “Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham.”
This rocket ship was designed just “Earth Orbit” as is they did not have the proper equipment to go to the moon. This Rocket Ship to circle the Earth for 2 weeks.
The crew was even apprehensive about this flight. They had a superstition that something was going to go wrong. NASA tried to calm their fears. “by saying that everything would be fine.”
“Mission Control said that they would be ready in February for lift off.” They had no idea that pure oxygen would burn up the cone of the rocket ship.”
On January the three crew members were ordered to enter the space craft ship dully dressed in their space suits for a test mission. When they had entered the space craft “Grissom had expressed there were some problems that needed immediate attention in his space suit. This delayed the test mission from 1:00 p.m. till 2:42 p.m. A few minutes later the escape hatch was sealed and pure oxygen was being pumped in.
There were other problems as well. “They had communication problems as well. They were put on hold for the second time. “They were still having problems at 6:00 p.m. Everything was still attached to the rocket why they were still trying to fix the problems.”
A few minutes later the astronauts were in their suits ready for takeoff. A couple minutes later NASA’s Officials could hear “Grissom screaming (FIRE) then a second astronaut spoke up saying “There is a fire in the cockpit.”. 17 seconds later all of the screaming in the capsule had stopped. “Overheating in the capsule and the fire is what killed the crew members.”
The ground crew tried to rescue the three men in the capsule but were afraid that they might kill other personnel as well.
When it was safe enough to approach the capsule, the smoke was too thick at first to see any of the crew. After the smoke cleared up they could identify the crew members. But, could not help them as they were already dead.
The intense fire in the capsule had melted some of the suits together. The fire had melted the nylon suits together.
“It was said that poor workmanship was the cause of the fire. (faulty wiring, and other things were the cause of the fire.”
On Apollo 11’s trip to moon they had left a plaque up there to remember all that died in the Apollo 1’s tragedy.
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was supposed to land on the moon. It was the third manned mission in space to go to the moon. But something seriously went wrong. And they had to turn around and come back.
The three crew members were supposed to be (James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise, and Ken Mattingly) But they had to make aching at last minute as Ken Mattingly was exposed to (Rubella) and had to be replaced by John L. Swigert at last minute.
Mattingly never contracted rubella.
The mission was launched on “April 11 at 13:13 C.S.T. (Central Standard Time). 2 days later the mission was in trouble. This was due to a faulty electrical system.
Mission Control had asked the crew the stir the “Hydrogen and Oxygen Tanks.” That’s when the explosion took place. Then you heard “Houston we’ve got a problem” that was misquoted it was supposed to be “Houston we have a problem.”
They were to explore the ‘Fra Mauro Formation’ or as it was called “Fra Mauro Highlands” This was a crater on the Moon.
On the way to the moon 200,000 miles away from earth “oxygen #2 exploded. The cause of this accident was uncertain at this time. Because of the explosion was uncertain they had to close the service module down they had to live in the command module on limited power. Still having attached to the service module, using it as a life boat.
The damage done to the odyssey
The damage done to the Odyssey made landing on the moon impossible. What they had done was use the moon’s gravity to send them back towards earth. They had done 3 burns to send them in the proper direction, to put them into earth’s orbit.
It took extreme measures to get the crew back home safely. What they had to do was to put a round peg into the square hole. There were no more television communication after this incident. But they were in touch with each other at all times.
Another problem they had was too much carbon dioxide in the air.
After leaving the Aquarius the Odyysey became their home. The crew was in fair condition except for Haise. “He had a serious Urinary Tract Infection.” It was ordered by Mission Control that there be no more urine drops. They had to store them in specific canisters. Also this might have caused the ship to lose its direction towards earth.
Even though the mission was cancelled for the moon “fortunately it happened on the way to the moon. If this had happened in the moon’s gravity their lives would have been lost.
“Because of the heater malfunction, the temperature only read 100 degrees, they had judged the temperature was 1000 degrees.
During this emergency they had used Ken Mattingly and Ken Aaron and other personnel to make sure that the crew got home safely. They had to concuct a tubing that would transfer the oxygen supply into the Aquarius. They had to put a square peg into a round hole.
“The mission was called a successful failure”. As it never reached its destination.
The crew was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the efforts they put forth during this tragedy.
They also had made a move out of the happening that went on during the scenario of Apollo 13.
THE CHALLENGER DISASTER
The space shuttle called “Challenger” exploded about 73 seconds after takeoff.
The entire shuttle disintergrated after a seal called “The O-Ring had caused a rupture in the S.R.B. (solid rocket booster) that lead to the shuttle exploding.
This was the first shuttle with a teacher on board, so it was television on National Television.
The seven people were “Sharon Christa McAuliffe, (the first teacher in space), Mission Commander Francis K. Scobee; Pilot Michael J. Smith; Mission Specialists Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizukal; Judith A Resnik; and Cargo Specialists Gregory B. Jaruis”.
The takeoff for Challenger was delayed for 5 days and 2 hours. It finally took flight at 11:38 a.m. E.S.T. (Eastern Standard Time)
After a long search they found the “crew compartment and many other items in the ocean floor. Although the exact times of death of the crew are still unknown. The suspect it happened during the explosion.” Unfortunately the shuttle had no escape in case of an emergency.
After the Challenger disaster there was an approximately a 3 year rest in the shuttle program.
The “NASA managers had known that the (SRB) had a serious flaw in O-Ring”) since 1977, but had failed to fix the problem. They also had a warning of cold temperatures. That may cause a problem for the space craft. They were also told the fix the problem to make sure that the aircraft was safe for take off and for the crew.
I was watching this in television and I can remember this like it happened yesterday.
Since this was a special event with the first teacher on board this was a special event for NASA.
The cold morning was a concern for some NASA’s Officials, because of the defect in the O-Ring.
The makers of O-Ring had told the officials that this part may not work properly in low temperatures.
There was ice buildup on the “Challenger” and the deicing team worked all night to remove the ice. The Rockwell Managers did not approve of this launch because of the temperatures being so low. ‘NASA’ officials still went ahead with the launch due to the warning of the other managers.
Unknown to the crew and Mission Control the gas began to leak through a hole in one of the SRB’S.
At Mission Control they heard some static and the spacecraft just blew up.
After this disaster schools were named after the Challenger. Some of the families had opened up educational centers in memorial of the crew on board.
By May 1 they had found enough of the SRB to determine the actual cause of the accident. They collected about 15 tons of debris, 55% of the Challenger, and 65% of the satellite cargo is still missing. Debris kept washing up on the shore as of 1996.
They had identified some of the crew members and were buried properly.
The shuttle mission was to carry cargo to a satellite device in space.
COLUMBIA DISASTER
This space shuttle was a disaster waiting to happen. The Columbia was flying over Texas when it fell apart over Texas. This shuttle was delayed 18 different times. The Columbia STS-107 was the oldest of the space shuttle missions. And was the first to orbit the Earth. This shuttle mission had seven people on board as well.
These people were Rick D. Husband-Commander, William C. McCool-pilot, Michael O. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Han Ramon.
“According to the NASA’s space safety regulation board had concerns about foam shedding from the shuttle. Damaging the shuttle itself. There other safety concerns as well.
7 to 8 minutes before launch they were all kinds of failures going on. The gauges were loose readings. Other gauges were failing as well. And to be fixed before liftoff.
The original take off was scheduled for January, but was delayed till June of 2002.
There were other problems as well they were Ramp insulation falling off in whole parts or in some parts. “They were flights which had these problems as well they were STS-7, STS-27, STS-32, STS-50, they were also problems in STS-52 and STS-62. There also some foam insulations falling off in pieces.
NASA’s engineers downplayed that the same thing could happen to Columbia. The space shuttle was supposed to land at Kennedy Space Center 9:16 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. All communications were lost 8 minutes before they were supposed to land.
Viewers over Texas took amateur pictures, and video of what was happening.