Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: Major Malfunction | Retro Report | The New York Time... - 0 views
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bluekoenig on 14 Jan 20In 1986 and 2003, NASA had its two biggest disasters ever with the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle on launch and the annihilation of the Columbia shuttle on reentry. NASA became over ambitious after the Appolo missions, attempting to launch shuttles up to 60 times a year due to their funding by private organizations who wanted the shuttles to release experiments and satellites into space. They started out successful with the original Columbia missions and then they became sloppy with the building and safety of their rocket boosters, which later caused the explosion of the Challenger rocket. NASA reevaluated its boundaries for acceptable risk and purged the members of NASA who pushed the Challenger mission through despite the risks. They stopped all launches for years Then in 2003 the Columbia shuttle had its first mission in years and a piece of foam from the rocket hit the wing of the shuttle, causing what they thought were possible damages. They made another bad call in not alerting the crew until the last minute and not investigating, changing the reentry plan, or trying to mend it while in space due to the fact that other foam had not caused issues before. The Columbia burned up on reentry after the piece of foam destroyed a heat resistant panel on the wing that acted as a weak point. NASA's biggest issue throughout all of this was refusing to learn from their mistakes, the Columbia mission could have been saved had NASA taken the proper protocols and tried harder to assess and fix the situation.