1 00:00:10,219 --> 00:00:12,950 Yeah, I just found it the other day. 2 00:00:12,179 --> 00:00:14,681 It's like-- Yeah, I didn't even remember it. 3 00:00:16,892 --> 00:00:18,852 It was a birthday present from Christa. 4 00:00:20,103 --> 00:00:23,398 She always kept a journal and hoped that I would do the same. 5 00:00:25,359 --> 00:00:28,779 This journal entry is July 4th, 1985, 6 00:00:28,862 --> 00:00:32,532 and this was right before Christa, I believe, was selected. 7 00:00:32,616 --> 00:00:35,994 "So there's been quite a bit of excitement recently. 8 00:00:36,780 --> 00:00:37,621 [crowd cheering] 9 00:00:37,704 --> 00:00:40,916 [Lisa] This coming January, a space shuttle will be launched 10 00:00:40,999 --> 00:00:42,876 carrying one of America's teachers. 11 00:00:45,671 --> 00:00:48,215 Each state elected two representatives, 12 00:00:49,383 --> 00:00:53,762 and I am proud to have my sister as a representative from New Hampshire. 13 00:00:56,556 --> 00:01:00,394 Christa runs, plays sports, does not drink much, and never smoked, 14 00:01:00,477 --> 00:01:02,312 and I think she has a great chance. 15 00:01:04,189 --> 00:01:06,692 The final decision is up to NASA. 16 00:01:10,700 --> 00:01:13,310 It will be nice to see her today at my parents'. 17 00:01:13,115 --> 00:01:16,535 My husband, Bob, his sister, Sally, and mother, Gert 18 00:01:16,618 --> 00:01:19,288 are all going to join in celebrating Independence Day, 19 00:01:21,707 --> 00:01:25,377 and the possibility of having an astronaut in the family." 20 00:01:31,675 --> 00:01:33,677 [theme music playing] 21 00:02:32,819 --> 00:02:35,822 [audience applauding] 22 00:02:35,906 --> 00:02:38,330 Space shuttle is back. Is it back? 23 00:02:38,116 --> 00:02:40,770 Is it… Does anybody know? Where is it? 24 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,371 I think it came in Monday, the space shuttle. 25 00:02:42,454 --> 00:02:45,499 It's back. Look at this, three people know. 26 00:02:45,582 --> 00:02:47,793 This is incredible, space missions! 27 00:02:47,876 --> 00:02:50,712 The most exciting thing that there ever was to happen. 28 00:02:50,796 --> 00:02:54,700 Right now, people don't even follow the spa-- I mean, it's… 29 00:02:54,910 --> 00:02:57,469 They should make it exciting. I don't know how they could make us all watch again. 30 00:02:57,552 --> 00:03:00,639 Maybe they should send up some guy that doesn't want to go. 31 00:03:00,722 --> 00:03:03,160 [audience laughing] 32 00:03:03,100 --> 00:03:05,102 [applause] 33 00:03:09,648 --> 00:03:13,193 Wouldn't you watch? I mean, I think everybody would watch that, you know… 34 00:03:13,276 --> 00:03:15,779 Dragging some guy down the hall, you know… 35 00:03:17,239 --> 00:03:19,866 put him in a spacesuit. He's holding on to door jams. 36 00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:21,159 [audience laughing] 37 00:03:21,243 --> 00:03:23,495 See his face in the glass on liftoff. 38 00:03:23,578 --> 00:03:25,800 [audience laughing] 39 00:03:25,163 --> 00:03:27,165 [applause] 40 00:03:31,503 --> 00:03:35,382 I think the public anticipated something more than what they got. 41 00:03:36,591 --> 00:03:40,429 When it becomes routine, people lose interest in it, 42 00:03:41,540 --> 00:03:44,141 and because of that, it was no longer front page. 43 00:03:44,933 --> 00:03:48,145 It was second page, third page, eighth page. 44 00:03:48,687 --> 00:03:51,640 That was my metric that I used 45 00:03:51,148 --> 00:03:54,901 to determine how excited the public was for this program. 46 00:03:56,319 --> 00:03:59,823 They got bored with flying to the moon, you know, the American public. 47 00:04:00,282 --> 00:04:03,618 So why wouldn't they get bored with flying around the Earth? 48 00:04:04,770 --> 00:04:07,748 We worried about it a lot because 49 00:04:07,831 --> 00:04:13,253 it's the public's support for NASA that keeps it going. 50 00:04:15,255 --> 00:04:18,675 NASA began to think this was time for us to bring in 51 00:04:18,884 --> 00:04:23,263 a non-professional astronaut to experience and share space flight. 52 00:04:23,972 --> 00:04:27,559 The day is coming when you don't have to be an astrophysicist 53 00:04:27,642 --> 00:04:30,395 or an astronaut or a medical doctor to go into outer space. 54 00:04:30,479 --> 00:04:33,398 NASA, in fact, is looking for the first non-astronaut 55 00:04:33,482 --> 00:04:35,275 to fly a shuttle mission. 56 00:04:35,358 --> 00:04:39,237 The opportunity for the public, in some form, 57 00:04:39,321 --> 00:04:42,657 to fly on this spectacular vehicle was there. 58 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:47,370 [Nesbitt] I remember hearing a lot of names like Tom Wolfe or Walter Cronkite. 59 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,624 Almost every news anchor in the country wanted to be the one to go up. 60 00:04:50,707 --> 00:04:52,751 Writers, journalists, 61 00:04:52,834 --> 00:04:55,921 or having a great poet go, or an artist. 62 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,900 [Joan Rivers] What's your one big fantasy? 63 00:04:59,174 --> 00:05:01,343 -What is-- -I wanna go up on the space shuttle. 64 00:05:01,885 --> 00:05:03,136 That's… You could do that. 65 00:05:03,220 --> 00:05:04,846 -It's wonderful. -[applause] 66 00:05:04,930 --> 00:05:06,681 I remember hearing some talk about 67 00:05:06,765 --> 00:05:10,101 Big Bird being a possible spaceflight participant, 68 00:05:11,102 --> 00:05:14,856 but you couldn't get a Big Bird costume into the crew compartment. 69 00:05:16,107 --> 00:05:18,485 All kinds of people have applied to fly on the shuttle: 70 00:05:18,568 --> 00:05:21,238 doctors, entertainers, writers, TV news anchors, 71 00:05:21,321 --> 00:05:24,199 and yesterday, President Reagan announced his decision. 72 00:05:25,951 --> 00:05:29,329 Today, I'm directing NASA to begin a search 73 00:05:29,746 --> 00:05:32,749 in all of our elementary and secondary schools, 74 00:05:33,410 --> 00:05:36,378 and to choose as the first citizen passenger 75 00:05:36,461 --> 00:05:41,550 in the history of our space program, one of America's finest, a teacher. 76 00:05:43,426 --> 00:05:46,304 [woman 2] My husband and I were watching the evening news, 77 00:05:46,388 --> 00:05:48,849 and he says that I said, "I'm going for it." 78 00:05:48,932 --> 00:05:52,102 I don't remember saying that, but I definitely remember thinking about 79 00:05:52,185 --> 00:05:54,620 what a fantastic opportunity this is. 80 00:05:54,646 --> 00:05:56,314 But when that shuttle lifts off, 81 00:05:57,232 --> 00:06:00,485 all of America will be reminded of the crucial role 82 00:06:00,569 --> 00:06:03,572 that teachers and education play in the life of our nation. 83 00:06:04,197 --> 00:06:07,409 [Barbara] And so,  I went to school the very next day 84 00:06:07,492 --> 00:06:09,661 and mentioned it to my colleagues. 85 00:06:10,370 --> 00:06:13,582 Three of us went to see our superintendent. 86 00:06:13,665 --> 00:06:17,252 He thought it was crazy that we wanted to go into space. [laughs] 87 00:06:17,335 --> 00:06:19,713 [anchor] These are some  of the applications from teachers 88 00:06:19,796 --> 00:06:21,548 hoping to be chosen for that flight. 89 00:06:21,631 --> 00:06:25,100 [Barbara] There's something like 11,000 teachers completed those applications. 90 00:06:26,636 --> 00:06:31,683 Everybody has a fantasy. My fantasy was to be an astronaut. 91 00:06:31,766 --> 00:06:33,727 The competition is gonna be stiff, 92 00:06:33,810 --> 00:06:37,314 but… it would be great to be that person selected. 93 00:06:37,939 --> 00:06:40,900 [Scobee Rogers] The competition with these 11,000 teachers 94 00:06:40,984 --> 00:06:42,861 was narrowed down to ten. 95 00:06:42,986 --> 00:06:44,863 Ten finalists. 96 00:06:45,864 --> 00:06:48,742 [Barbara] We went to the NASA Johnson Space Center, 97 00:06:48,825 --> 00:06:50,869 where we would undergo evaluations 98 00:06:50,952 --> 00:06:54,414 that needed to happen before, uh, being selected to fly. 99 00:06:54,497 --> 00:06:56,708 [anchor] Even though they just arrived this week, 100 00:06:56,791 --> 00:07:01,338 the teachers have already had their share of prodding, poking, testing, and running. 101 00:07:01,421 --> 00:07:03,256 It's all part of the screening process 102 00:07:03,340 --> 00:07:06,343 that will eventually lead to one of the group making history. 103 00:07:08,386 --> 00:07:10,889 [Barbara] That's when I first got to meet Christa. 104 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:17,479 [Lisa] My sister Christa was always a very special person. 105 00:07:17,979 --> 00:07:20,398 Growing up in a very small house… 106 00:07:20,482 --> 00:07:23,777 The house had three bedrooms, and there were seven of us. 107 00:07:25,820 --> 00:07:29,366 Christa, my younger sister Betsy, and I shared a room. 108 00:07:31,743 --> 00:07:36,998 I remember when she would go out on dates with her boyfriend, Steve. 109 00:07:38,124 --> 00:07:40,100 When I would wake up in the morning, 110 00:07:40,850 --> 00:07:44,798 she would always have a little something next to Betsy's and my dresser, 111 00:07:45,340 --> 00:07:47,801 like a book or maybe a piece of candy, 112 00:07:48,802 --> 00:07:51,540 and I thought that was an unusual thing 113 00:07:51,137 --> 00:07:55,225 for a teenager to go out on a date and think about her siblings. 114 00:07:56,685 --> 00:07:58,436 And that's just who she was. 115 00:07:59,187 --> 00:08:03,566 She and Steve both graduated college, and they got married. 116 00:08:04,734 --> 00:08:06,695 She was, I believe, 21. 117 00:08:08,238 --> 00:08:10,990 She had the belief that she could do extraordinary things, 118 00:08:11,116 --> 00:08:14,327 but she also believed that everybody could do extraordinary things. 119 00:08:15,578 --> 00:08:17,622 When Christa saw the Apollo go up, 120 00:08:17,706 --> 00:08:20,375 she said, "Well, I wish I could go into space." 121 00:08:20,458 --> 00:08:22,669 She was just thrilled about the whole idea 122 00:08:22,752 --> 00:08:25,672 that they were thinking of sending a teacher to space. 123 00:08:28,425 --> 00:08:31,886 [Barbara] NASA had three questions that they would ask us. 124 00:08:31,970 --> 00:08:33,471 They gave us two of the questions, 125 00:08:33,555 --> 00:08:36,224 and we were told that the third question would be a surprise. 126 00:08:36,307 --> 00:08:39,769 Describe your philosophy of living. 127 00:08:39,853 --> 00:08:41,396 "My philosophy of living." 128 00:08:43,106 --> 00:08:47,402 Well, I think my philosophy of living is to get as much out of life as possible 129 00:08:48,236 --> 00:08:51,906 and to certainly involve other people in that enjoyment, 130 00:08:51,990 --> 00:08:56,244 but also, because of the country that we live in, to be a participant. 131 00:08:57,454 --> 00:08:58,455 [anchor] NASA officials 132 00:08:58,538 --> 00:09:01,400 will pick a finalist and a runner-up before the end of the month. 133 00:09:01,124 --> 00:09:02,167 [camera shutter snaps] 134 00:09:02,250 --> 00:09:04,961 The winner will go to space in January. 135 00:09:06,796 --> 00:09:12,427 When NASA was starting to open up the space shuttle flights 136 00:09:12,510 --> 00:09:15,130 to people who were not professional astronauts, 137 00:09:16,431 --> 00:09:20,310 that was not well-received within the Astronaut Office. 138 00:09:22,896 --> 00:09:28,818 We really, truly, didn't believe that we were as safe, if you would, 139 00:09:28,902 --> 00:09:32,405 as that would tend to lend you to believe. 140 00:09:33,865 --> 00:09:37,350 We were still learning how to operate the system 141 00:09:37,118 --> 00:09:41,664 and to develop the capabilities to do it regularly and successfully. 142 00:09:41,748 --> 00:09:46,127 We accepted those risks, but we thought they were always going to be managed. 143 00:09:49,756 --> 00:09:53,468 My first major assignment at NASA 144 00:09:53,551 --> 00:09:56,221 was about three weeks after I'd come on board. 145 00:09:56,930 --> 00:10:00,767 My supervisor said, "Go over to the Office of Space Flight, 146 00:10:00,850 --> 00:10:05,210 talk to the engineers, and document the problems they were having 147 00:10:05,814 --> 00:10:07,440 with the solid rocket boosters." 148 00:10:07,941 --> 00:10:10,735 I had been hired to work on the space shuttle program 149 00:10:10,819 --> 00:10:15,281 as a budget analyst, and one of the big cost factors 150 00:10:15,365 --> 00:10:17,867 was the cost of the solid rocket boosters. 151 00:10:19,770 --> 00:10:20,453 When I got over there, 152 00:10:20,995 --> 00:10:25,583 the engineers told me that after each shuttle flight, 153 00:10:25,667 --> 00:10:31,470 on every agenda, NASA listed problems in the solid rocket boosters. 154 00:10:32,257 --> 00:10:37,136 I didn't know the extent of the issues, so I started looking at the problem. 155 00:10:38,555 --> 00:10:41,641 NASA is a nationwide organization. 156 00:10:41,724 --> 00:10:43,685 The solid rocket boosters 157 00:10:43,768 --> 00:10:46,896 were managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center 158 00:10:46,980 --> 00:10:48,773 in Huntsville, Alabama, 159 00:10:48,857 --> 00:10:52,680 which had responsibility for the solid rocket boosters 160 00:10:52,151 --> 00:10:58,740 and for the solid rocket booster contractor, Morton Thiokol, in Utah. 161 00:11:02,537 --> 00:11:06,820 [Covey] I'd been to several test firings of the solid rocket boosters 162 00:11:06,165 --> 00:11:08,376 in Utah on several occasions. 163 00:11:09,850 --> 00:11:13,423 Whenever an astronaut would go to our contractor locations, 164 00:11:13,506 --> 00:11:15,300 our general message was, 165 00:11:15,383 --> 00:11:19,470 "The work you do is paramount to my safe flight, 166 00:11:19,554 --> 00:11:21,598 and we want you to remember that, 167 00:11:21,681 --> 00:11:26,811 that there are people that are dependent upon how well your product performs." 168 00:11:28,188 --> 00:11:31,441 [McDonald] I was the director of the Solid Rocket Motor Project 169 00:11:31,524 --> 00:11:33,276 for the Thiokol Corporation. 170 00:11:33,359 --> 00:11:38,781 This was the first time that we were involved in a vehicle using solid rockets 171 00:11:38,865 --> 00:11:41,576 that actually launched people into space. 172 00:11:42,202 --> 00:11:44,203 [boosters firing] 173 00:11:44,287 --> 00:11:46,205 [narrator] Twin solid rocket boosters 174 00:11:46,289 --> 00:11:50,501 produce a combined thrust of over five million pounds for liftoff. 175 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:53,630 Two minutes later, the solid boosters will burn out, 176 00:11:53,713 --> 00:11:55,757 separate from the external tank. 177 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:57,508 [operator] We see… Set flight. 178 00:11:58,920 --> 00:11:59,930 [astronaut] Roger… 179 00:11:59,761 --> 00:12:02,597 [narrator] Then parachute  to a water landing and recovery 180 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:04,140 in the Atlantic Ocean. 181 00:12:08,436 --> 00:12:11,439 The boosters will be refurbished and returned to service 182 00:12:11,522 --> 00:12:12,941 on a continuing basis. 183 00:12:13,483 --> 00:12:16,653 We recovered the boosters that fell back down into the sea, 184 00:12:16,736 --> 00:12:21,282 and we were able to inspect them and evaluate the performance. 185 00:12:22,330 --> 00:12:26,913 When I started out at Thiokol, I was in the reliability engineering section. 186 00:12:27,664 --> 00:12:31,834 That's when we started to see some erosion inside of the boosters. 187 00:12:33,294 --> 00:12:36,756 [McDonald] When we brought the boosters back, pulled them apart, 188 00:12:36,839 --> 00:12:39,217 and pulled the O-rings out, inspect them, 189 00:12:39,300 --> 00:12:42,470 we could see it got burned, right where we saw a hole, 190 00:12:42,553 --> 00:12:45,223 where gas had come through at that exact location, 191 00:12:45,932 --> 00:12:49,686 and there's a little bit of the O-ring missing that had actually burned off. 192 00:12:50,645 --> 00:12:52,355 It's not something that we'd want. 193 00:12:52,438 --> 00:12:56,150 What you'd want is to have the O-ring come back whole and un-singed. 194 00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,362 The O-rings are rubber, 195 00:12:59,445 --> 00:13:02,699 and you've probably seen little O-rings in the hardware store. 196 00:13:02,782 --> 00:13:05,535 These O-rings are a little over a quarter-inch in diameter, 197 00:13:05,618 --> 00:13:07,245 but they're 40 feet long 198 00:13:07,328 --> 00:13:10,832 to fit around the whole circumference of the case segments. 199 00:13:11,791 --> 00:13:14,627 And they fit into grooves, and so they stay in place. 200 00:13:14,711 --> 00:13:18,965 And then when the joint is assembled, they seal against the opposite surface, 201 00:13:20,910 --> 00:13:22,510 and there are two of those in each field joint. 202 00:13:23,219 --> 00:13:28,570 [McDonald] The reason there's two there is because we had to have redundancy 203 00:13:28,141 --> 00:13:32,103 so that if one O-ring failed, the other one would hopefully keep the seal. 204 00:13:34,220 --> 00:13:38,260 If the seal erodes, then the hot flame that's causing that erosion 205 00:13:38,109 --> 00:13:40,987 will burn across the O-rings and come outside, 206 00:13:41,700 --> 00:13:44,907 and we'd have a rocket motor leak. And then the rocket would blow up. 207 00:13:44,991 --> 00:13:46,576 It was a significant concern. 208 00:13:48,995 --> 00:13:51,914 [Cook] This O-ring problem continued to happen, 209 00:13:53,875 --> 00:13:56,419 and the solid rocket booster engineers 210 00:13:56,502 --> 00:13:59,756 felt it was not being effectively dealt with. 211 00:14:00,548 --> 00:14:03,968 And so I continued to meet with the engineers 212 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:05,595 to investigate the problem. 213 00:14:07,472 --> 00:14:13,728 I worked at Thiokol, and I carpooled to work with my dad, Bob Ebeling. 214 00:14:14,604 --> 00:14:17,857 Dad was working on the boosters. 215 00:14:19,670 --> 00:14:21,903 He told us about the O-ring issue. 216 00:14:22,528 --> 00:14:24,739 That was really disconcerting to him 217 00:14:24,822 --> 00:14:30,244 because he knew that a teacher was going up in space, 218 00:14:30,328 --> 00:14:32,997 and this was a major problem. 219 00:14:34,165 --> 00:14:36,959 He felt if you don't fix this, 220 00:14:37,430 --> 00:14:39,629 eventually, there would be 221 00:14:39,712 --> 00:14:41,339 a catastrophe. 222 00:14:47,110 --> 00:14:50,598 We're here today to announce the first private citizen passenger 223 00:14:50,681 --> 00:14:52,266 in the history of spaceflight. 224 00:14:52,350 --> 00:14:56,521 This passenger would be one of America's finest, a teacher. 225 00:14:57,230 --> 00:15:00,316 [Barbara] The day that the announcement  was made at the White House, 226 00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:02,819 it was just  the ten of us sitting there, waiting. 227 00:15:03,861 --> 00:15:06,720 Ann Bradley, she was our superintendent. 228 00:15:06,155 --> 00:15:11,953 We said to Ann, "Let us know who it is. This is not a beauty contest." 229 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:13,955 [Bush] First, the backup teacher, 230 00:15:14,380 --> 00:15:16,165 who will make the flight if the winner can't. 231 00:15:16,249 --> 00:15:19,210 -Barbara Morgan, congratulations. -[applause] 232 00:15:19,293 --> 00:15:23,631 [Barbara] Christa had been joking with us about when she's gone, 233 00:15:23,714 --> 00:15:28,678 her husband Steve would feed the kids cereal, and that would be their meals. 234 00:15:29,470 --> 00:15:35,601 Ann says, "Christa, I hope you've stacked up on a lot of cereal." 235 00:15:36,644 --> 00:15:39,564 [Bush] The winner, the teacher who will be going into space, 236 00:15:40,481 --> 00:15:43,484 Christa McAuliffe. Where's-- Is that you? 237 00:15:43,568 --> 00:15:44,986 [all laughing] 238 00:15:48,614 --> 00:15:52,452 I wanted to be the prime, like we all did, but I was so excited for Christa. 239 00:15:52,535 --> 00:15:54,745 She was the perfect choice, 240 00:15:54,829 --> 00:16:00,376 and I was so excited to be her backup and to get to learn alongside her. 241 00:16:03,588 --> 00:16:06,549 It's not often that a teacher is at a loss for words. 242 00:16:06,632 --> 00:16:08,509 I know my students wouldn't think so. 243 00:16:09,135 --> 00:16:11,971 I've made nine wonderful friends over the last two weeks, 244 00:16:12,763 --> 00:16:15,349 and when that shuttle goes, there might be one body. 245 00:16:18,811 --> 00:16:22,106 But there's gonna be ten souls that I'm taking with me. Thank you. 246 00:16:22,190 --> 00:16:24,250 -[Bush] That's great. -[applause] 247 00:16:25,484 --> 00:16:29,405 [Lisa] When she was selected, we were not that surprised. 248 00:16:29,488 --> 00:16:33,409 I think we almost expected her to be chosen. 249 00:16:34,535 --> 00:16:36,829 [anchor] Husband Steve heard the news on the radio. 250 00:16:36,913 --> 00:16:40,583 Everybody who knows her, I think, honestly thought that, you know, there-- 251 00:16:40,666 --> 00:16:43,544 There may have been candidates who were certainly her equal, 252 00:16:43,628 --> 00:16:46,589 but that there was nobody that would be superior to her. 253 00:16:46,672 --> 00:16:47,965 [crowd cheering] 254 00:16:51,385 --> 00:16:53,554 [Lisa] It was quite an exciting time. 255 00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:58,434 The girl next door was gonna ride in a shuttle. 256 00:17:00,610 --> 00:17:04,815 This was a real galvanizing moment and completely enthused… 257 00:17:05,816 --> 00:17:06,859 a lot of people. 258 00:17:06,943 --> 00:17:09,403 Well, she's the first teacher in space. 259 00:17:09,904 --> 00:17:13,320 The first teacher, and also a woman, thank goodness. 260 00:17:13,991 --> 00:17:17,780 [Billingsly] And it got a lot of kids really excited 261 00:17:17,161 --> 00:17:20,539 and suddenly made this space travel incredibly relatable. 262 00:17:22,583 --> 00:17:24,377 And it wasn't just an astronaut. 263 00:17:24,460 --> 00:17:26,462 It was now… It one of us. 264 00:17:26,545 --> 00:17:29,882 And it was… You know, it was somebody's teacher. 265 00:17:29,966 --> 00:17:32,134 [man] They're gonna send up this first school teacher, 266 00:17:32,218 --> 00:17:34,679 and it's gonna be a lot easier for people to get into space. 267 00:17:34,762 --> 00:17:36,305 It's gonna be a lot more routine. 268 00:17:36,973 --> 00:17:38,766 [Peter] I had been a child actor 269 00:17:38,849 --> 00:17:41,561 and had gained some notoriety  from A Christmas Story. 270 00:17:42,610 --> 00:17:45,273 I was the spokesperson for the Young Astronaut Program. 271 00:17:46,148 --> 00:17:50,361 The sense that I personally might be able to go one day was completely true. 272 00:17:51,700 --> 00:17:55,740 There was a larger plan, when the astronauts landed and Christa was back, 273 00:17:55,157 --> 00:17:58,119 we were gonna do a national press tour together. 274 00:17:58,202 --> 00:18:02,707 And they said, "The next step for us is gonna be a kid in space." 275 00:18:03,291 --> 00:18:07,628 And I thought, "My gosh, that's awesome, man, yes, sign me up." 276 00:18:07,712 --> 00:18:11,132 [Christa] It's exciting students about a way of life that's part of their future. 277 00:18:11,215 --> 00:18:13,801 They've got to get ready for this. Their grandchildren 278 00:18:13,884 --> 00:18:15,928 are probably gonna be on space stations, 279 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:17,930 and students have to prepare for that future. 280 00:18:18,140 --> 00:18:20,182 And I think this will help them do that. 281 00:18:21,767 --> 00:18:24,812 [Scobee Rogers] Everyone identified with Christa. 282 00:18:24,895 --> 00:18:29,817 She was not only representing teachers beautifully, 283 00:18:30,484 --> 00:18:31,861 but she was a mother. 284 00:18:34,710 --> 00:18:37,283 [anchor] She'll now go through 114 hours of intensive training. 285 00:18:37,366 --> 00:18:39,952 That's, of course, a fraction of what astronauts go through, 286 00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:42,580 but enough so she can get along as she takes the flight 287 00:18:42,663 --> 00:18:44,957 and records her thoughts in a journal. 288 00:18:45,410 --> 00:18:49,170 A flight into space for an ordinary citizen, it's not a dream anymore. 289 00:18:49,253 --> 00:18:54,910 It's going to happen, probably in 1986 and several times a year after that. 290 00:18:54,842 --> 00:18:57,428 [Scobee Rogers] Christa was taking all the civilians, 291 00:18:57,511 --> 00:19:01,640 who would never have a opportunity to fly in space like the astronauts… 292 00:19:02,224 --> 00:19:03,976 She was taking us with her. 293 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,146 [anchor] Her six-year-old daughter  Caroline wasn't very happy about it. 294 00:19:07,229 --> 00:19:09,815 I don't want her to go in space 295 00:19:09,899 --> 00:19:12,860 because I just want her to stay around my house. 296 00:19:26,916 --> 00:19:31,870 Glitches and gremlins continue to plague America's space shuttle program today, 297 00:19:31,170 --> 00:19:34,382 as NASA's newest space plane, Discovery, never got off the ground 298 00:19:34,465 --> 00:19:36,425 because one of its computers wouldn't work. 299 00:19:36,509 --> 00:19:38,636 [anchor 2] Forty minutes before scheduled liftoff, 300 00:19:38,719 --> 00:19:41,347 tests showed trouble with one of the five computers. 301 00:19:41,430 --> 00:19:45,726 Only six of the previous 19 shuttle flights have gone up on time. 302 00:19:49,313 --> 00:19:53,150 [Harwood] When the shuttle program was sold to Congress, it was being billed 303 00:19:53,234 --> 00:19:55,403 as an "all things to all people" space truck 304 00:19:55,486 --> 00:19:57,363 that eventually would pay for itself. 305 00:19:57,947 --> 00:20:01,450 They'd be charging commercial customers to launch their satellites. 306 00:20:01,534 --> 00:20:04,120 The DOD is gonna pay to launch their missions. 307 00:20:04,203 --> 00:20:08,165 NASA had promised Congress they were gonna launch two a month, eventually. 308 00:20:09,750 --> 00:20:12,670 But I think in 1985, they had nine flights. 309 00:20:13,170 --> 00:20:17,341 [anchor] This will be the 20th mission since the program began in April, 1981. 310 00:20:17,425 --> 00:20:21,720 NASA had originally estimated there would be more than twice as many flights by now, 311 00:20:21,804 --> 00:20:25,150 but the continuing delays make it clear that the shuttle program 312 00:20:25,990 --> 00:20:28,352 is not as routine and reliable as its developers had hoped. 313 00:20:29,270 --> 00:20:34,108 [Lucas] We had a lot of problems to solve, some of which were not anticipated 314 00:20:34,191 --> 00:20:37,111 because there are thousands of things, 315 00:20:37,194 --> 00:20:39,280 on a vehicle such as the shuttle, 316 00:20:39,363 --> 00:20:42,533 that, if they go wrong, will cost you the flight. 317 00:20:43,826 --> 00:20:47,370 [Crippen] The schedule called for us to launch a lot of shuttles, 318 00:20:47,121 --> 00:20:49,582 and we didn't always make the schedule. 319 00:20:49,665 --> 00:20:52,668 So there was a lot of… I don't want to use the word "pressure," 320 00:20:52,751 --> 00:20:56,630 but there was a lot of effort made to keep flying 'em, 321 00:20:56,714 --> 00:20:59,467 and flying 'em faster than what we were doing. 322 00:21:00,134 --> 00:21:03,387 [Harwood] The shuttle program was one of the crowning achievements 323 00:21:03,471 --> 00:21:04,722 of American technology, 324 00:21:05,681 --> 00:21:09,226 but it simply was so complicated, 325 00:21:09,310 --> 00:21:12,313 it could never pay for itself or come anywhere close to that. 326 00:21:14,565 --> 00:21:21,238 [Richard Truly] The dream of the shuttle, to be cheap and fly often, 327 00:21:21,322 --> 00:21:26,327 that spacecraft never has existed and never will. 328 00:21:27,495 --> 00:21:31,665 I was a test pilot and NASA manager. 329 00:21:31,749 --> 00:21:36,921 The problem was there were people early on in NASA 330 00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:42,718 that was telling the public that we were gonna fly, fly, fly, 331 00:21:43,344 --> 00:21:45,930 and it was never gonna be. 332 00:21:46,130 --> 00:21:49,475 [anchor] Critics say NASA's optimism amounted to a deliberate distortion 333 00:21:49,558 --> 00:21:53,521 of the budget figures in an attempt to get Congress enmeshed in the program, 334 00:21:53,604 --> 00:21:56,398 a technique known in Washington as "buying in." 335 00:21:57,399 --> 00:21:59,985 We really don't honestly apologize for that 336 00:22:00,690 --> 00:22:04,740 because most every airplane system and space program system 337 00:22:04,823 --> 00:22:07,409 that I've been involved with in my 35 years… 338 00:22:08,285 --> 00:22:11,956 You don't see all the detailed problems in the beginning that you see later. 339 00:22:12,581 --> 00:22:13,999 [Harwood] The pressure was on 340 00:22:14,830 --> 00:22:17,836 when NASA decided to add Senator Jake Garn to the shuttle crew. 341 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,632 This was one of the lawmakers that's responsible for NASA's budget. 342 00:22:22,383 --> 00:22:24,969 [moderator] Senator Jake Garn, the payload specialist, 343 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:27,846 making his first flight into orbit, 344 00:22:27,930 --> 00:22:31,767 our first congressional observer on the space shuttle program. 345 00:22:32,726 --> 00:22:36,647 [Covey] The space shuttle was always dependent upon Congress, 346 00:22:36,730 --> 00:22:39,942 so flying a senator would bring additional attention 347 00:22:40,250 --> 00:22:42,486 and support for the space shuttle program. 348 00:22:42,570 --> 00:22:47,320 [announcer] This is a seven-person crew, scheduled to make a five-day mission… 349 00:22:47,116 --> 00:22:49,827 [Covey] Those things  coming together was important 350 00:22:49,910 --> 00:22:53,205 and not lost on NASA that that was required. 351 00:22:53,289 --> 00:22:57,209 [announcer] …to an awaiting astronaut  van that will take them to the launch pad. 352 00:22:57,876 --> 00:23:00,421 [Harwood] When NASA added Senator Garn to that crew, 353 00:23:00,504 --> 00:23:02,756 he bumped payload specialist Greg Jarvis, 354 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:05,551 who was originally supposed to fly on that flight. 355 00:23:05,634 --> 00:23:08,470 [Anchor] Astronaut Greg Jarvis will be running experiments 356 00:23:08,554 --> 00:23:11,560 to see if the amount of liquid fuel in a satellite, 357 00:23:11,140 --> 00:23:15,102 or the sloshing around of fuel, makes satellites less stable. 358 00:23:15,185 --> 00:23:18,272 And then Jarvis was assigned to a flight and got bumped again 359 00:23:18,939 --> 00:23:22,151 by Congressman Bill Nelson, who was on a House committee 360 00:23:22,234 --> 00:23:25,487 that dealt with NASA's budget, and he ended up on Challenger's crew. 361 00:23:27,656 --> 00:23:29,992 [woman] Greg had a real spark in his eye, 362 00:23:30,909 --> 00:23:32,870 something I don't see in everybody's. 363 00:23:33,537 --> 00:23:37,958 Greg and I got married and lived in Boston for the first year of our marriage. 364 00:23:38,876 --> 00:23:43,589 He got job offers from every one of the companies that he applied to, 365 00:23:43,672 --> 00:23:45,591 and he chose Hughes to work at. 366 00:23:47,900 --> 00:23:51,430 The first day we got to California was the day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. 367 00:23:52,264 --> 00:23:55,142 I remember sitting in the car when that came on the radio. 368 00:23:55,768 --> 00:23:57,811 [announcer] Armstrong is on the moon, Neil Armstrong. 369 00:23:57,895 --> 00:24:00,648 -[Armstrong over radio, indistinct] -[Jarvis] Greg just went bananas 370 00:24:00,731 --> 00:24:03,192 when he heard  that we're actually walking on the moon, 371 00:24:03,275 --> 00:24:05,736 and he was just… intrigued. 372 00:24:07,905 --> 00:24:10,491 Greg was very passionate about engineering, 373 00:24:10,574 --> 00:24:13,350 but his specialty was communication satellites… 374 00:24:13,827 --> 00:24:16,205 that were going to be launched from the shuttle, 375 00:24:17,289 --> 00:24:20,376 and when the program presented itself at Hughes, 376 00:24:20,459 --> 00:24:24,460 that they could fly a payload specialist, 377 00:24:24,797 --> 00:24:27,299 he was so ecstatic about that. 378 00:24:28,175 --> 00:24:33,970 They narrowed it down to the final ten, and so he called me at work. 379 00:24:33,639 --> 00:24:35,933 And he just says, "I got number one." 380 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,769 And then I said, "Seriously?" He says, "Yes." 381 00:24:41,397 --> 00:24:44,775 He always thought of astronauts as being perfect people. 382 00:24:44,858 --> 00:24:48,700 Nothing wrong with them psychologically or physically, 383 00:24:48,654 --> 00:24:53,659 and he says, "Who would have ever thought that a balding, 40-year-old engineer 384 00:24:53,742 --> 00:24:56,954 would ever get a chance to be in this situation?" 385 00:24:57,370 --> 00:24:58,706 So he was just ecstatic. 386 00:24:58,789 --> 00:25:01,834 Your first time you put on the blue flight suit you say-- 387 00:25:01,917 --> 00:25:04,503 You kind of walk around, "Maybe I'll let them walk in front of me, 388 00:25:04,586 --> 00:25:07,673 and they won't see me." But after a while, you think… 389 00:25:07,756 --> 00:25:12,344 You do the things that they do. You work around the orbiter. 390 00:25:12,428 --> 00:25:15,140 You say, "I know what I'm doing here. I belong." 391 00:25:16,598 --> 00:25:18,600 [boosters firing] 392 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:27,276 [McDonald] January of 1985, 393 00:25:27,901 --> 00:25:31,321 which was the coldest launch we ever experienced at that time, 394 00:25:31,405 --> 00:25:34,158 we saw this O-ring problem again. 395 00:25:34,241 --> 00:25:35,617 [man on radio, indistinct] 396 00:25:35,701 --> 00:25:38,746 [astronaut] Roger, sound.  Twelve minutes, 12 seconds, 397 00:25:38,829 --> 00:25:41,331 confirm good solid rocket booster separation. 398 00:25:41,415 --> 00:25:44,918 [McDonald] When we retrieved these boosters, and pulled them apart, 399 00:25:45,461 --> 00:25:49,715 we not only had a burned O-ring in one of the joints on each of the boosters, 400 00:25:50,466 --> 00:25:53,802 but we had a huge amount of very black soot 401 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:57,931 between those two O-rings that went almost all the way around 402 00:25:58,150 --> 00:26:00,309 this huge circumference of this booster. 403 00:26:01,685 --> 00:26:03,312 That was very frightening 404 00:26:03,395 --> 00:26:06,190 because this was the first time we'd seen 405 00:26:06,273 --> 00:26:09,109 this field joint actually had been compromised. 406 00:26:10,819 --> 00:26:12,780 We couldn't understand why that happened. 407 00:26:12,863 --> 00:26:15,240 We'd never seen this behavior in one of these joints. 408 00:26:15,324 --> 00:26:19,453 We went through all of our manufacturing records and engineering records, 409 00:26:19,536 --> 00:26:20,954 and we couldn't find anything 410 00:26:21,380 --> 00:26:25,000 that would explain what was different about this set of hardware, 411 00:26:25,830 --> 00:26:28,295 other than the temperature that it was launched at. 412 00:26:29,755 --> 00:26:32,966 In fact, it was the three coldest days, at that time, in Florida history. 413 00:26:36,762 --> 00:26:39,723 My boss at the time was a fellow by the name of Joe Kilminster, 414 00:26:40,224 --> 00:26:42,684 and he recognized what I recognized. 415 00:26:42,768 --> 00:26:45,103 These O-rings, they're very pliable, 416 00:26:45,187 --> 00:26:48,482 but they become very brittle and stiff as you get 'em very cold. 417 00:26:49,399 --> 00:26:53,362 [Kilminster] We thought there might be a correlation with temperature. 418 00:26:53,445 --> 00:26:56,365 We started then looking at all the data. 419 00:26:57,741 --> 00:27:01,578 There were launches that were done at warmer temperatures, 420 00:27:01,662 --> 00:27:04,873 and we were still seeing some degradation. 421 00:27:04,957 --> 00:27:06,750 [McDonald] In fact, on one launch, 422 00:27:06,834 --> 00:27:10,587 we saw it burned a little bit of the secondary O-ring, 423 00:27:11,296 --> 00:27:13,674 which was very, very concerning. 424 00:27:13,757 --> 00:27:17,594 We couldn't show a real solid correlation. 425 00:27:17,678 --> 00:27:20,848 That's why we put a task force together, 426 00:27:20,931 --> 00:27:25,185 to have a concentrated effort on how to evaluate the problem. 427 00:27:26,228 --> 00:27:30,774 One of the design engineering supervisors was the head of that task force, 428 00:27:30,858 --> 00:27:32,109 and I was his assistant. 429 00:27:32,818 --> 00:27:34,695 Bob Ebeling, who was my boss, 430 00:27:34,778 --> 00:27:38,740 he kept close contact there, and then we had a number of engineers, 431 00:27:38,824 --> 00:27:41,743 and all were working together to resolve the O-ring issue. 432 00:27:41,827 --> 00:27:45,706 [Kilminster] At the time, the Marshall Space Flight Center, our bosses, 433 00:27:45,789 --> 00:27:49,126 were kept abreast on all of the work that was going on. 434 00:27:49,751 --> 00:27:50,919 [McDonald] Dr. Bill Lucas, 435 00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:53,672 who was the Center Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, 436 00:27:53,755 --> 00:27:58,927 and Larry Mulloy was the manager of the Solid Rocket Booster Project. 437 00:27:59,110 --> 00:28:04,766 We recognized early on that there was a risk associated with the, uh… O-rings. 438 00:28:05,642 --> 00:28:08,395 I thought we needed to get further research. 439 00:28:09,104 --> 00:28:13,483 We assembled a group of competent engineers experienced in the field 440 00:28:14,670 --> 00:28:17,738 and assigned them to evaluate what caused the failure 441 00:28:18,363 --> 00:28:20,730 and to recommend the correction. 442 00:28:21,199 --> 00:28:25,537 We knew this was one of the great challenges of the program. 443 00:28:33,450 --> 00:28:35,672 -[Barbara] You ready? -[Christa] Come on, put on your shoes. 444 00:28:35,756 --> 00:28:37,591 -[both laughing] -[Barbara] I know it. 445 00:28:39,426 --> 00:28:41,428 [laughing] 446 00:28:45,265 --> 00:28:47,267 [indistinct chatter] 447 00:28:47,351 --> 00:28:49,937 [Barbara] When we first got to the Johnson Space Center, 448 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:53,106 one of the first things we were supposed to do after we got our badges 449 00:28:53,190 --> 00:28:56,401 and all that stuff… We were to go meet with the crew. 450 00:28:56,902 --> 00:28:58,737 [man] Y'all beautiful.  I ain't kidding. 451 00:28:58,862 --> 00:28:59,988 -Yeah, right. -[laughter] 452 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:02,574 -[woman] Stay with me! -[camera shutter snapping] 453 00:29:02,658 --> 00:29:05,243 [Barbara] That was the first time  we were all together in a group. 454 00:29:05,827 --> 00:29:07,537 [Christa laughing] 455 00:29:07,996 --> 00:29:11,458 [Barbara] They were doing  a photo opportunity of-- of all of us. 456 00:29:12,167 --> 00:29:13,752 And they were wonderful. 457 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:16,546 -The light didn't blink. -It didn't go. 458 00:29:16,630 --> 00:29:18,840 That's all right. You missed the world's greatest picture. 459 00:29:21,301 --> 00:29:22,928 [Barbara] One of the astronaut wives 460 00:29:23,110 --> 00:29:26,515 took Christa and me around to show us different apartments. 461 00:29:26,598 --> 00:29:29,851 She took us to the Peachtree Apartments, 462 00:29:29,935 --> 00:29:33,355 and we thought this was great because it actually had little patches 463 00:29:33,438 --> 00:29:36,191 of green grass with some trees. 464 00:29:36,274 --> 00:29:39,653 And there happened to be two apartments that were right next door to each other. 465 00:29:40,821 --> 00:29:44,157 We went out to get our groceries and pots and pans, 466 00:29:44,241 --> 00:29:46,618 and then we came back to our apartments. 467 00:29:46,702 --> 00:29:50,497 And I took my time, thinking, "Okay, now, where's this gonna go? 468 00:29:50,998 --> 00:29:53,166 I gotta set this up just perfectly." 469 00:29:54,543 --> 00:29:57,212 I was probably two hours into it, 470 00:29:57,963 --> 00:29:59,673 and there's a knock at the door. 471 00:29:59,756 --> 00:30:05,262 And it's Christa, and in her hands, she has a homemade apple pie 472 00:30:05,345 --> 00:30:08,473 that she just made for her friend living next door. 473 00:30:11,935 --> 00:30:13,770 That's what Christa was like. 474 00:30:15,897 --> 00:30:19,109 We have good video. We're ready for your lesson. Go ahead, Christa. 475 00:30:19,693 --> 00:30:21,194 Okay. [chuckles]  476 00:30:21,903 --> 00:30:25,157 Hi, this is Christa McAuliffe, broadcasting live from the Challenger. 477 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,910 ["Space Age Love Song" by A Flock of Seagulls plays] 478 00:30:32,164 --> 00:30:35,375 This is the lesson that's going to deal with, "Why are we in space? 479 00:30:35,459 --> 00:30:37,850 Why does the shuttle fly?" 480 00:30:37,586 --> 00:30:38,879 -Whoops. -[clatters] 481 00:30:38,962 --> 00:30:41,715 Ugh, this zero gravity environment, it's just awful. 482 00:30:42,841 --> 00:30:46,303 [Barbara] Christa was gonna do  two live lessons from space. 483 00:30:46,386 --> 00:30:49,347 One was called, "Where We've Been, Where We're Going, and Why," 484 00:30:49,431 --> 00:30:52,809 about how the shuttle helped build the International Space Station. 485 00:30:53,435 --> 00:30:56,563 [man] Hey, are you gonna take it apart and put it together in front of cameras? 486 00:30:56,646 --> 00:31:00,567 While I'm talking about it, I figured I would be putting parts of it together, 487 00:31:00,650 --> 00:31:04,738 and you're much better giving comparisons to kids or examples. 488 00:31:05,322 --> 00:31:08,950 When Christa moved to Houston, she was always a big letter writer, 489 00:31:09,340 --> 00:31:10,577 so I would get letters from her. 490 00:31:11,244 --> 00:31:15,123 She would share with us what she was going through, the type of training. 491 00:31:15,957 --> 00:31:18,100 She said she was gonna go fly in a jet. 492 00:31:18,850 --> 00:31:19,544 [indistinct chatter] 493 00:31:20,128 --> 00:31:24,132 ♪ I saw your eyes ♪ 494 00:31:26,718 --> 00:31:29,971 ♪ And you made me smile ♪ 495 00:31:30,550 --> 00:31:31,223 [camera shutter clicks] 496 00:31:33,475 --> 00:31:37,145 ♪ For a little while ♪ 497 00:31:39,439 --> 00:31:42,984 ♪ I was falling in love… ♪ 498 00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:45,195 [Lisa] It was just a learning experience. 499 00:31:45,278 --> 00:31:48,782 To learn how it all came together was pretty cool. 500 00:31:48,865 --> 00:31:50,867 [music continues] 501 00:31:54,996 --> 00:31:57,707 She went on the…  What they called "the Vomit Comet." 502 00:32:01,711 --> 00:32:03,880 [both cheering] 503 00:32:06,842 --> 00:32:09,719 [Barbara] She was really happy that she didn't vomit on it. 504 00:32:10,387 --> 00:32:13,223 That was kind of a good test that she passed right there. 505 00:32:13,306 --> 00:32:15,684 [chattering and laughing] 506 00:32:20,564 --> 00:32:22,149 [Lisa] I was thrilled for her. 507 00:32:22,232 --> 00:32:24,359 She felt it was a very supportive team. 508 00:32:24,442 --> 00:32:28,321 It was kind of like one big classroom to her. She was very happy. 509 00:32:28,405 --> 00:32:29,781 [music ends] 510 00:32:29,865 --> 00:32:31,616 And a good time was had by all. 511 00:32:31,700 --> 00:32:34,161 [laughing] We had a wonderful time. 512 00:32:34,244 --> 00:32:36,580 What are we doing today? I thought we were doing TV stuff. 513 00:32:36,663 --> 00:32:40,834 What we do in this class is we cover some of the comm equipment here, 514 00:32:40,917 --> 00:32:43,670 and just kind of briefly tell 'em how everything interfaces. 515 00:32:43,753 --> 00:32:46,256 So this thing, just always remember, don't bend this. 516 00:32:47,549 --> 00:32:48,717 You can adjust it, you know. 517 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:51,845 [Smith-Wolcott] My husband, Mike, was the pilot of Challenger. 518 00:32:53,889 --> 00:32:59,853 When Mike asked me to marry him, he said, "I'm going to be a pilot, 519 00:32:59,936 --> 00:33:02,606 and then I'd like to be an astronaut. 520 00:33:02,689 --> 00:33:04,608 Are you going to have a problem with that?" 521 00:33:05,317 --> 00:33:08,653 And I, you know, "No, sounds good to me." 522 00:33:09,196 --> 00:33:10,697 And so, off we went. 523 00:33:12,532 --> 00:33:16,495 When I married Mike, I was 21 years old. 524 00:33:18,790 --> 00:33:19,539 He was 22. 525 00:33:19,623 --> 00:33:22,709 It seems young, but it really was fine. 526 00:33:23,668 --> 00:33:28,506 We were on a mission of simply enjoying life. 527 00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:32,427 Mike was a man with a plan. 528 00:33:34,179 --> 00:33:37,182 He applied for test pilot school in order to be an astronaut. 529 00:33:38,475 --> 00:33:42,187 So he applied to the program, 530 00:33:42,270 --> 00:33:44,231 and I got this phone call one day. 531 00:33:44,314 --> 00:33:48,443 And the man on the other end, "This is George Abbey calling from NASA." 532 00:33:49,110 --> 00:33:52,822 And I said, "Wait a minute." And then Mike gets the phone, and George said, 533 00:33:52,906 --> 00:33:56,159 "You've been selected  for the 1980 group of astronauts. 534 00:33:57,244 --> 00:34:00,789 So, are you willing to come?" And Mike said, "Let me call you back." 535 00:34:01,957 --> 00:34:05,377 George said it was the first time anybody ever said, "Let me call you back." 536 00:34:06,378 --> 00:34:09,339 So Mike said, "What do you think?" 537 00:34:09,422 --> 00:34:12,884 And I said, "Do whatever you think is best for you." 538 00:34:12,968 --> 00:34:15,971 He said, "Well, it would make me have more time with the family, 539 00:34:16,540 --> 00:34:18,431 and it's very exciting." 540 00:34:18,515 --> 00:34:20,580 I said, "So you're saying yes?" 541 00:34:20,141 --> 00:34:23,186 And he said, "So I think it would be a great opportunity." 542 00:34:28,441 --> 00:34:31,111 [man] If the nav bay fire light comes on, 543 00:34:31,194 --> 00:34:33,572 you want to discharge the fire on ascent and entry. 544 00:34:33,655 --> 00:34:35,490 Just discharge the fire bottle right away. 545 00:34:35,573 --> 00:34:37,659 The aft bays also have fire ports. 546 00:34:37,742 --> 00:34:39,953 A fire port is a red hole, 547 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:44,165 the suppressant used is Halon 1301, just to get the extra Halon in there. 548 00:34:45,417 --> 00:34:47,752 [Harwood] Going into January of 1986, 549 00:34:47,836 --> 00:34:50,463 NASA was clearly having trouble meeting the schedule. 550 00:34:50,964 --> 00:34:53,216 There were 16 flights planned in 1986, 551 00:34:53,300 --> 00:34:55,260 and there were nine the previous year. 552 00:34:55,343 --> 00:34:57,950 The folks involved in the shuttle program 553 00:34:57,178 --> 00:34:59,764 knew that was a really tough hill to climb, 554 00:34:59,848 --> 00:35:01,975 but they had promised it to Congress, 555 00:35:02,580 --> 00:35:04,352 and they were hell-bent on trying to pull it off. 556 00:35:05,103 --> 00:35:06,229 [McDonald] Meanwhile, 557 00:35:06,313 --> 00:35:09,941 the task force was working on changes  in the solid rocket booster 558 00:35:10,250 --> 00:35:14,700 that would hopefully solve this O-ring joint problem. 559 00:35:15,572 --> 00:35:20,660 The company's first priority was making shuttle segments for flight. 560 00:35:21,828 --> 00:35:25,457 [Russell] It was frustrating  that even though we understood 561 00:35:25,540 --> 00:35:27,500 that we could have a catastrophic failure, 562 00:35:27,584 --> 00:35:31,630 NASA wanted to have increased number of launches. 563 00:35:32,839 --> 00:35:36,635 And so every launch became nerve-racking to me. 564 00:35:36,718 --> 00:35:40,960 It was something that… My stomach churned a bit, 565 00:35:40,180 --> 00:35:43,767 and I'd clench my fists and genuinely have white knuckles 566 00:35:43,850 --> 00:35:47,604 because I didn't know how those O-rings would perform. 567 00:35:48,104 --> 00:35:50,315 Bob Ebeling was my boss. 568 00:35:50,398 --> 00:35:54,986 He and I talked often, and I expressed frustration of how things were going. 569 00:35:55,700 --> 00:35:59,949 And he understood and was definitely engaged in wanting to solve the problem. 570 00:36:00,330 --> 00:36:02,350 [typewriter clacking] 571 00:36:04,371 --> 00:36:08,291 [McDonald] I received a memo written by Bob Ebeling. 572 00:36:10,585 --> 00:36:11,419 "Help! 573 00:36:12,545 --> 00:36:17,342 The seal task force is constantly being delayed by every possible means. 574 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:20,929 This is a red flag." 575 00:36:21,721 --> 00:36:23,181 [Kilminster] After I read that memo, 576 00:36:23,264 --> 00:36:26,643 I felt that we would try to do whatever we could 577 00:36:26,726 --> 00:36:29,562 in order to help on the task force. 578 00:36:29,646 --> 00:36:34,943 However, per our contracts, we were supposed to adhere to our schedule, 579 00:36:35,260 --> 00:36:38,822 and that's what we were using as our road map. 580 00:36:39,906 --> 00:36:43,827 But we made sure that NASA knew about this, 581 00:36:43,910 --> 00:36:49,165 all the way up to and including NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. 582 00:36:50,125 --> 00:36:52,877 The same solid rocket booster engineers, 583 00:36:52,961 --> 00:36:55,338 who had given me the information initially, 584 00:36:55,422 --> 00:36:57,549 began giving me documents. 585 00:36:58,842 --> 00:37:02,429 There had been an instance where the first O-ring in a flight 586 00:37:02,512 --> 00:37:07,142 had been eaten through, and the second O-ring had been eroded. 587 00:37:07,684 --> 00:37:09,853 And that was the potential catastrophe. 588 00:37:10,770 --> 00:37:14,733 Because anytime there's a failure in a redundant feature, 589 00:37:15,442 --> 00:37:18,820 NASA had a requirement that the shuttle could not be flown. 590 00:37:20,238 --> 00:37:22,365 You had to stop and fix it, 591 00:37:22,449 --> 00:37:25,493 but it was gonna take a couple of years. 592 00:37:26,828 --> 00:37:32,375 [Lucas] My engineers knew that the joint should be redesigned, 593 00:37:32,459 --> 00:37:34,544 and that was in the process. 594 00:37:35,420 --> 00:37:40,216 [Mulloy] The judgment at the time was it was not risky enough not to fly, 595 00:37:40,300 --> 00:37:44,471 so I issued a waiver that we would fly as is. 596 00:37:46,347 --> 00:37:50,226 [Cook] The waiver means that you know there's a problem, 597 00:37:50,310 --> 00:37:52,353 you don't have time to fix it… 598 00:37:52,437 --> 00:37:58,359 And so, they processed that document in order to be able to continue to fly. 599 00:37:59,270 --> 00:38:01,905 The schedule was so demanding 600 00:38:01,988 --> 00:38:05,325 that nobody was willing to ground the fleet to fix the problem. 601 00:38:05,867 --> 00:38:07,911 [Mulloy] We were under tremendous pressure, 602 00:38:08,745 --> 00:38:10,288 both schedule and technical. 603 00:38:10,997 --> 00:38:14,420 If you don't keep your schedule, you don't keep your budget, 604 00:38:14,626 --> 00:38:16,419 so I put the pressure on myself, 605 00:38:17,587 --> 00:38:19,297 just as a matter of pride. 606 00:38:22,217 --> 00:38:23,843 What are you most excited about? 607 00:38:23,927 --> 00:38:27,555 Seeing the Earth from that perspective of that small planet… 608 00:38:27,639 --> 00:38:29,682 You know, it's such a big place here, 609 00:38:29,766 --> 00:38:32,180 but being able to look at it from a new perspective. 610 00:38:32,101 --> 00:38:35,630 And I hope I can bring that wonder and that excitement back to the students. 611 00:38:35,146 --> 00:38:38,900 -Maybe just a little bit of fright too? -Not yet. 612 00:38:38,983 --> 00:38:41,444 [announcer] Minus ten, we're go for main engine start. 613 00:38:41,528 --> 00:38:44,781 [Christa] Maybe when I'm strapped in and those rockets are going off 614 00:38:44,864 --> 00:38:48,701 underneath me, there will be. But space flight today really seems safe. 615 00:38:48,785 --> 00:38:52,622 [announcer] Five, four, three, two, one. 616 00:38:53,248 --> 00:38:54,832 We have ignition and liftoff. 617 00:38:54,916 --> 00:38:57,460 Liftoff of Challenger and the Spacelab D-1 mission. 618 00:38:57,544 --> 00:38:59,462 [chuckling] Ah! 619 00:39:01,464 --> 00:39:04,133 [Cook] When I asked the engineers 620 00:39:04,217 --> 00:39:07,345 what would happen if the O-ring seals failed, 621 00:39:07,428 --> 00:39:09,347 they said the shuttle would blow up. 622 00:39:10,390 --> 00:39:12,892 I felt a professional 623 00:39:12,976 --> 00:39:14,769 and personal obligation 624 00:39:15,603 --> 00:39:17,188 to put that in writing 625 00:39:17,814 --> 00:39:20,483 and give that to my supervisor. 626 00:39:22,151 --> 00:39:26,239 "Flight safety has been and is still being compromised 627 00:39:26,322 --> 00:39:28,241 by potential failure of the seals, 628 00:39:30,326 --> 00:39:34,372 and it is acknowledged that failure during launch 629 00:39:34,455 --> 00:39:36,874 would certainly be catastrophic." 630 00:39:37,542 --> 00:39:40,860 Oh, my God! Look at it. 631 00:39:40,670 --> 00:39:42,880 [announcer] Velocity, 2,000 feet per second. 632 00:39:42,964 --> 00:39:45,910 [Christa] Oh, it's beautiful. 633 00:39:45,925 --> 00:39:48,803 [announcer] All three main engines  are running smoothly now, 634 00:39:48,887 --> 00:39:52,682 -at 65% aerated thrust… -Just like that so I'll shoot it sideways. 635 00:39:54,100 --> 00:39:56,144 [Covey] The engineers said to me 636 00:39:56,227 --> 00:39:59,772 they held their breath  with every shuttle launch. 637 00:40:00,523 --> 00:40:02,984 [announcer] Challenger, Houston, go with throttle up. 638 00:40:03,670 --> 00:40:04,235 [camera shutter snaps] 639 00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:11,340 [closing theme music playing]