European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 28, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine to Craw of Chalton Roll pm s1l Michael j. Smith front Tow my fronds r. Scobey and Ronald e. Mcettr Wilton s. Onzuka Toft Rwjr Chiala Mcaulitte Ongory Jerk it unit Judith 4, Eranik Appio the Day Nasa had been postponing for 25 yeans1 by Harry f. Rosenthal associated press Hrista Mcauliffe came to Cape canaveral Lull of excitement for the adventure she called the ultimate yield trip no teacher she said had Ever been More prepared for just two lessons. I just Hope everyone tunes in on Day 4 to match the teacher teaching from apace she said. On Day 4, with the Nalion in mourning. Navy men were skimming the remains of space shuttle challenger from the Atlantic Ocean and came across a few pages of the lessons the teacher never got to teach. And a second Grade Pupil in Chevy Chase md., brought to school an explanation of the Accident that said the space shuttle exploded in the sky because there was a leak and ally he space people died when the space ship  and on that Day when millions of children in classrooms All Over the world had planned to tune in on he flight of challenger they watched instead e Eulogy being delivered in Houston by president Reagan which was also a lesson. The future is not free he said. The Story of a human Progress is one of struggle against All Odds. We Learned again that this America which Abraham Lincoln called the last Bent Hope o Man on Earth was built on heroism and Noble  it was built he said by the likes of Dick Scobee Mike Smith Ellison Onizuka Judy Resnik ran Mcnair Greg Jarvis and Christa Mcauliffe men and women who answered a Call beyond duty who gave More than was expected or required and who gave it Little thought of worldly  Alwn the challenger exploded after 73 seconds of fight on the morning of Jan. 28,1986, Only a few thousand people were on hand at Cape canaveral but around the country schoolchildren gathering around to. Cheered when the shuttle lifted Oil and did its Majestic Roll than cried out in horror when ii was engulfed in a fearsome White and Orange fireball White Jas water rockets breaking free painted a horrible v across the Blue sky. Before the Day was out hundreds of millions of people had seen replays of the scene. Without the teacher from Concord . Aboard Tew would have paid attention to the preparations or flight 51l. Without her. There was nothing to distinguish this Mission from the 24 thai preceded it. No derring do was planned no space wafts. No satellite rescues no fancy rehearsals erecting Loq Foa solar panels. Challenger was to deliver a satellite to space. To hum. The three largest us commercial television networks did t consider the launch newsworthy enough to Cut into their morning programming. Those roads in the area with a Good View of launch pad 34b in spaceport towns like Titusville Cocoa Beach and port canaveral no longer were bumper to bumper with cars and campers on launch Day. Local sheriffs used to claim a million people watching for recent shuttle lift offs Sherg were Hardy enough spectators to fill a College basketball Arena. The Shock that allowed the explosion was not hard to explain. To americans space flight was a matter of fact it had been going on after All for Quarter Century. Ninety million americans had been bom since John Glenn of rated the Globe a generation had grown up knowing that people went into space walked on the Moon and resumed to Earth with not so much As a scratch. We have allowed ourselves to be beguiled by space As a place where Only Beauty and mathematics worked where there was no a disease where we listened to the music of the spheres where it was Aristotle and Descartes and Einstein says John Chancellor Csc news commentator and space Buff. The idea that you could take this Beautiful Pristine icy cold. Germ free environment and introduce death and uncertainty and destruction in it made people take i  on the Day of the Accident Glenn himself commented this is he Day thai Nasa has been postponing for 25  but was ii an Accident or was it the tragic culmination of a can do Agency gone Sloppy and making compromises to meet an increasingly ambitious schedule with its four orbiter shuttle Fleet the Rogers commission investigating the tragedy Lor president Reagan Lound troubling lapses in judgment expertise communications and management. It called the challenger explosion an Accident rooted in history and said the Agency had accepted growing risks because they got away with it the last time the direct a a of the explosion was a leak at a joint Between segments of one of two Booster rockets that provide 80 percent of the Power to push the orbiter into space. Superheated gases Shol through that leak toward the adjacent fuel Lank and triggered the conflagration. Some Nasa managers had feared for years that trouble lurked in the huge rockets. As Early As 1977, an Engineer at Nasa s Marshall space flight Center in Alabama warned superiors Hal the rocket designed by Morton thl Okol inc. Was unacceptable that two Quarter Inch diameter a rings intended to Seal in the searing gases could leak under pressure. A paper Trail that extended from that Point until the challenger explosion showed 17 instances where soot was found on the recovered boosters indicating they had leaked during their two minutes of flight. The worst Case had been on a Mission almost exactly a year before challenger s when Oring damage occurred in both rocket boosters. A backup of ring. The last ditch defense against Burn through Tho Edthe effect of heat. That Jan. 24,1965. Liftoff had taken place when the temperature was 53 degrees at the launch site the coldest to Date. The challenger launch was to Lake plats after a night when temperatures were forecast in the Low 20s and thl Okol engineers argued heatedly that it be postponed. One Marshall official told about the concerns responded my god Thi Okol when do you want me to launch in april in the end the oof by a overruled their engineers and gave Nasa the go ahead. The Rogers commission Seid thl Okol acted under pressure from Nasa. The men who made the final decision to launch say they knew none of this not about he suspect 0-rings, not about the history of leaks and not about the launch eve argument. John Young chief of the astronaut office and Nasa s most experienced astronaut with six lights referred to the 0-rings As the secret Seal which no one that we know knew  but he Rogers commission disputed that. The o ring history presented to the top level at Nasa Headquarters in August 1985, was sufficiently detailed to require corrective action prior to the next flight the commission said. And astronaut Robert Crippen under questioning by the Pana admitted he had been a representative of the astronauts at one meeting where the problem was discussed without grasping its significance. The Rogers commission concluded that the space shuttle s solid rocket Booster problem began with the faulty design of its joint and increased As both Nasa and contractor management first failed to recognize it As a problem Hen failed to fix it and finally treated it As an acceptable flight  the commission also determined that Nasa was under Loo great pressure to launch and was stretching its capabilities to the limit in scheduling 15 flights Tor 1986. It found no substance to the Rumor Hal the White House had pushed for the Jan. 28 launch so that the shuttle could be in orbit when president Reagan delivered his state of the Union speech. While the space Agency scrambled to satisfy nine major recommendations made by the commission shuttle operations were stopped not to resume until continued on pages 14 s 15 wednesday january so. 1987 the stars and stripes Page 13