Reflecting on Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Contact: Howard Segal, 581-1920
ORONO — Many Americans can remember exactly what they were doing when they heard the news 25 years ago on Jan. 28 that space shuttle Challenger had exploded 73 seconds after launch, but many may be unaware of the historical and technological significance of the tragedy.
University of Maine history Professor Howard Segal, a researcher and expert on the evolution of technology in the United States, is available to discuss some of the issues surrounding NASA, safety, and the politics that may have contributed to an ill-advised decision to launch Challenger after unprecedented pre-launch delays, repairs, problems, and a sense of urgency from the office of the President at the time.
“The 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster should remind us that overconfidence in the alleged safety of complex scientific and technological devices is always dangerous,” Segal says. “As became clear in the Presidential Commission established by the Reagan Administration after the tragedy — but only because Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman refused to keep silent under pressure from the White House and from Commission Chairman and Secretary of State William Rogers — there had been warnings by Morton Thiokol engineers over the years that the shuttle was anything but the equivalent of a conventional airplane, as per NASA’s pr machine. Far from it.”
The disaster also reminds us of “the equally dangerous and, in this case, fatal intrusion of politics upon the space program,” says Segal. “President Reagan and his PR people insisted on the launch to coincide with his State of the Union Address and to try to reduce educators’ hostility toward his unsuccessful efforts to abolish the Department of Education earlier in his administration. That was why New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe was the Teacher in Space on the mission.”
Finally, it also reminds us of the price often paid in America by whistleblowers — in the Challenger case, by Morton Thiokol engineer Roger Boisjoly, who, without being fired (too politically dangerous) was moved into a non-job because he’d been the foremost opponent of launching shuttles in cold weather, according to Segal.
Professor Segal can be contacted at (207) 581-1920 or by email at howard.segal@umit.maine.edu.
In addition, professor of mechanical engineering Vincent Caccese who has worked with NASA on and space vehicle safety in the aftermath of the Feb. 1, 2003 Columbia re-entry catastrophe, also is available to offer perspective on some of the design modifications to make space flight safer. He can be reached at (207) 581-2131.
In observance of the anniversary of the Challenger tragedy, the Challenger Learning Center of Maine in Bangor has scheduled a special event Thursday, Jan. 27. From 6-7:30 p.m., the center has scheduled a “Family Science Challenge,” which involves completing one of the lessons Christa McAuliffe had planned to teach from orbit. On Friday, Jan. 28, the center has a simulated mission planned for a school group between 9:30 and 11 a.m. At 11:30, students will observe a 25th anniversary commemoration streamlined from the Challenger Learning Center in Houston. More information is available by calling (207) 990-2900.