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]