STS-51-L: A thirty-year retrospective

When the Green Bay Packers made their appearance at the White House for the traditional presidential visit after their Super Bowl XXXI victory, backup quarterback Jim McMahon (who would retire after the game) drew controversy for wearing some Chicago Bears gear during his visit to the White House.  He explained it was a makeup visit for the 1985 Chicago Bears (which he was the starting quarterback) that won Super Bowl XX, as the team never made its obligatory White House visit, 11 years past.  It would be a full 25 years and 9 months before the 1985 Bears received their official White House visit, 12 years after the death of their star running back.

Jim McMahon's reasoning would sound unusual and hateful for many younger fans, since most did not understand the reason the 1985 Bears never made the White House visit.  Their official visit was scrubbed as a result of the days following the 46-10 victory over New England, and would not take place until October 2011.  That leads to the memory of this day, and the time, we mourn thirty years ago.

11:39:13

The cultural impact of that time stamp thirty years ago has the same as another generation would have in 2001 with 16:41 (February 18) and 8:46 (September 11).  We remember that day.   McAuliffe.  Jarvis.  Resnik.  Scobee.  McNair.  Smith.  Onizuka.

Coming up on the 30-second point in our countdown...T-Minus 30 seconds and we've had a go for auto-sequence start...

The solid rocket booster hydraulic power units have started...T-Minus 21 seconds...and the solid rocket booster engine gimbal now underway...

T-Minute Fifteen Seconds. T-Minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, we have main engine start, four, three, two, one, and liftoff! Liftoff of the 25th Space Shuttle Mission (51-L) and it has cleared the tower.

Good roll program confirmed . . . Challenger now heading downrange . . .

Steve Nesbitt, NASA public affairs officer:  Engines beginning throttling down now at 94 percent. Normal throttle for most of the flight is 104 percent, we'll throttle down to 65 percent shortly. Engines at 65 percent . . . three engines running normally . . . three good fuel cells . . . three good APU's . . . Velocity 2,257 feet per second, altitude 4.3 nautical miles, downrange distance three nautical miles. Engines throttling up . . three engines now at 104 percent.

Mission Control: Challenger, go at throttle up.

Commander Scobee: Roger, go at throttle up.

Nesbitt:  One minute, Fifteen seconds . . . Velocity 2,900 feet per second . . . altitude nine nautical miles . . . Downrange distance seven nautical miles.

Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation . . . Obviously a major malfunction . . . We have no downlink.

We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight Director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point.

After homework and dinner, along with a continuous pipe of WDIX radio (now defunct) to catch updates on the disaster, it dawned on me that it was a disaster like no other I knew. After homework and dinner, the television was on the disaster for the whole evening. It was the first time I had witnessed a national tragedy of this proportion. And it was devastating to a nation in a fight against the Soviets.

Contingency procedures are in effect.

We will report more as we have information available. Again, to repeat, we have a report relayed through the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. We are now looking at all the contingency operations and awaiting word from any recovery forces in the downrange field.

This is Mission Control Houston. We have no additional word at this time. Reports from the flight dynamics officer indicate that the vehicle apparently exploded and that impact in the water at a point approximately 28.64 degrees north, 80.28 degrees west. We are awaiting verification from . . . as to the location of the recovery forces in the field to see what may be possible at this point, and we will keep you advised as further information becomes available. This is Mission Control.

This is Mission Control Houston. We are coordinating with recovery forces in the field – range safety equipment, recovery vehicles intended for the recovery of the (solid rocket boosters) in the general area. Those parachutes are believed to be paramedics going into that area. To repeat, we had an apparently normal ascent with the data coming to all positions being normal.

Up through approximately the time of main engine throttle back up to 104%, at approximately a minute or so into the flight there was an apparent explosion, the Flight Dynamics Officer reported. Tracking reported that the vehicle had exploded and impacted the water in an area approximately located at 28.64 degrees north, 82.8 degrees west. Recovery forces are proceeding to the area, including ships and a C-130 aircraft. Flight controllers reviewing their data here in Mission Control. We will provide you with more information as it becomes available. This is Mission Control Houston.

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Dog star

I hope you've been following the tremendously exciting Pluto story this week, but in case you haven't you can read about it here.  I've been absolutely enthralled by it; the idea of seeing actual pictures of that most distant planet* is just unthinkable.  As someone who's always been fascinated by space travel, I can't remember the last time I found something this exciting.  The first few flights of the space shuttle, perhaps?  Even though that was nowhere near as momentous as the race for the moon, it was still pretty interesting.  And yet this Pluto thing has been - to use a word I generally try to avoid - mind-blowing.

*Yes, I'm still calling it a planet.

Pluto has existed as a planet for my entire lifetime.  I remember reading a book about it when I was in grade school; one of those Scholastic publications, I suspect.  I found the story of Pluto's discovery to be strangely gripping, and I can still remember the names of the scientists who made up the story: Percival Lowell, who thought there were canals on Mars and had pioneered the search for what he referred to as "Planet X," and Clyde Tombaugh, the man who finally discovered the planet.

Left: Pluto from 476,000 miles away; Right: Mountains on the surface, from about 7,600 miles.  (Source: NASA)

Part of what made Pluto so interesting for a kid, of course, was the connection to Disney's dog*; it made the planet somehow more accessible to a child's mind.  But there was also something about the sheer distance from Earth to Pluto.  It was so much farther away than the other planets; it had a tilted orbit, and was so elongated that for a time it becomes the eighth planet, creeping closer to the Sun than Neptune.  The fact that it had been discovered in the 20th Century, long after an eight-planet solar system had been established, only added to its mystique.  The event not only changed history books, it changed music as well: Holst's The Planets ended with Neptune, and it was up to the contemporary composer Colin Matthews to compose a new movement for Pluto in 2000.

*In the same way, perhaps, that I liked the baseball player Yogi Berra because of Yogi Bear.

As critical of Neil deGrasse Tyson as I've been in the past, I think his book on Pluto is wonderful, and his description of Pluto as "America's favorite planet" is both perceptive and endearing.  The decision to change Pluto's status to that of a dwarf planet may be technically correct, but at the same time it points out why science fact is so much more boring than science fiction: it completely lacks any sense of romance, of mystery.  It seems likely that the fact Pluto was discovered by an American had something to do with it's downgrading.

But what does it prove, other than that Holst's work can be performed as originally written?  Not a thing to my mind.  Pluto remains, for me, a planet - period.  The sent back by the New Horizons spacecraft - taking more than nine years, and traveling over 3 billion miles - have made the tiny planet so immediate, so real.  Looking back at it - from that paperback book I read nearly 50 years ago to the tiny specks of light visible in the night sky - it is still amazing that something so far away and so dead can become so alive.  What Lowell and Tombaugh would have thought had they seen those pictures!  Dwarf planet, my foot!

This week Pluto came full circle, from one astronomer's distant dream to another's discovery of a speck on a photoplate to a planet that has become every bit as real as our own moon - more real, in its way, than most of the other planets in the outer group.  No wonder that, next to Earth itself, it remains my favorite planet as well.

Neil Armstrong, R.I.P.

In the life of every legend, there comes the moment when he ceases being merely a man. For Neil Armstrong, that moment came, in a sense, on September 17, 1962. That was the day he was officially named an astronaut, and that evening his parents appeared on I've Got a Secret to commemorate the event.


It's a stunning moment, given that Armstrong was anything but a household name, when Garry Moore poses the question.  How would you feel if your son was the first man on the moon?  For Moore, born in the decade after the Wright Brothers' flight, the idea of a man walking on the moon was an abstract concept, an unimaginable goal that was inexorably in the process of becoming reality.  For those born or of age in the decade of the 70s, the moon landing was a given; impressive, to be sure, but hardly unfathomable, because they'd never known it any other way. 

Having been born in 1960, I was a child of the space age, growing up with the space program as a part of everyday life.  My memories became cognisant with the final flight of Mercury, and clearer as Gemini progressed.  By the time of the Apollo 1 fire, they were fully formed, and for the rest of the space race I was joyfully along for the ride.  

And amidst the iconic names of the era, the Glenns and Shepards and Grissoms, there was no more iconic name than that of Neil Armstrong.  


It was hard to believe that the images actually came from the moon.  I'm not talking about the kind of suspicion the conspiracy buffs promote, but simply the unbelievability that a live picture could be broadcast from another world.  Are you sure this is going to be from the moon?  They aren't going to just be broadcasting the audio over some kind of animation?

No, it was real all right, and Armstrong's small step propelled him into the unwanted realm of immortality, his name forever to be linked to the unimaginable.  As Arthur C. Clarke would write, "Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined."  Armstrong was not a Christopher Columbus looking for personal achievement, but a man carrying out a mission.  It was something that Armstrong, tempermentally more engineer than explorer, was never comfortable with.

But in another sense Armstrong was the perfect hero, a man who exuded integrity.  When he chaired the Challenger investigation committee, there was no thought that the committee would produce a whitewash or a coverup.  You knew Neil Armstrong wouldn't have any part in something like that.  His refusal to stay in the public spotlight, to make something of his renoun, added to that sense.  He always disclaimed personal honors, reminding everyone of all those behind the scenes who helped to make it happen.  And so his refusal to consider himself a hero made him more of one, and even more than that, it made him admirable.  There is a high school in Robbinsdale, Minnesota called Armstrong High School.  It's named after him, as I'm sure are countless others throughout the country.  There was once a coach of the Chicago Bears named Neill Armstrong.  Whenever I heard his name I always thought of the astronaut, as I'm sure many others did. 

And as the years passed, as Armstrong faded into the recesses of history, replaced by reality shows and flavor-of-the-month celebrities, his stature - at least to me - rose even more.  For those of us who realized the total magnitude of the moon landing, how it changed everything into pre-landing and post-landing eras, there was something amazing about the idea that Armstrong still lived, and that we shared that time with him.  It was similar to the way the early astronauts themselves had felt about Charles Lindbergh, who had lived into the early 70s and whom many of them had met.  There was something amazing about it all, and something comforting, to live with that link to greatness.

I doubt that flags will be lowered to half staff this week to commemorate Neil Armstrong's death, but they should be.  This will probably sound trite, but it's not every day that the first man to walk on the surface of another world dies.  We didn't see Columbus land in the new world, or Magellan circumnavigate the globe, or Hillary set foot on Mount Everest.  We weren't at the North Pole or the South Pole, we never saw explorers set foot on foreign lands, but hundreds of millions saw Neil Armstrong live when he walked on the moon, and anyone with a computer can call it up on YouTube any time they like.

The thing about greatness, though - true greatness - is that it tends to outlive itself.  The men and women who reach such greatness live on long after their accomplishments, in the pages of the history they helped to create.  So we'll remember Neil Armstrong, as we should, and marvel that we lived in his times.  ◙

Searching for Snoopy

As a veteran space travel buff, this is way cool. The lunar module of Apollo 10 (code name: Snoopy) - the final lunar orbital test run prior to the moon landing - came within a few miles (relatively speaking) of the moon's surface. At the mission's conclusion, the LM was jettisoned to orbit around the sun. Now, astronomers are searching to find that spacecraft! ◙

Retro TV Friday

Last week Bobby posted an article on the 25th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster, and following the links from the YouTube clip included in the piece opened up a treasure-trove of network television coverage of the manned space program. Most fascinating for me was a look at the care with which the networks introduced their space coverage. It was an Event, with a capital E, and it's something that seems to me to be missing from television today.

Let's start with a little hippiness - NBC's intro to its coverage of the Apollo 16 flight in 1972. The graphics are pure 70s all the way, and yet far more elaborate than any introduction you're likely to see on one of today's newscasts.




This link leads you to CBS's opening for its coverage of the flights of Apollo 9, 10 and 11. As perhaps befitts what was once known as the "Tiffany Network," the CBS style is perhaps more ponderous, more portentious, with Cronkite in full "Voice of God" mode* But there's no denying the power in "the epic journey of Apollo 11." These men were explorers, voyagers, about to embark on a mission never before done. With the advantage of retrospect, we forget that the success of the first moon landing was by no means assured. And was this perhaps the last time one heard reference to "astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins" before they ceased being men and became icons instead?

*I defy anyone to watch Dave Thomas' impressions of Cronkite on SCTV and then listen to the real Cronkite while keeping a straight face. Think especially Bowling for Dollars.

Finally, for something really low-tech, try out NBC's coverage of the Liberty Bell 7 launch, as Gus Grissom becomes the second American in space. Actually, it's a little more like our "Breaking News" intros, don't you think?




Drama in abundance, though, and I wonder what, if anything, will make us feel this way again? ◙

11.39.13

11:39:13.

That time stamp may not mean much today to today's generation. However, to those who were alive twenty-five years ago, this time stamp, on the twenty-eighth day of January, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred Eighty-Six, the time stamp does reflect a time where people ask where they were twenty-five years ago that time.

Coming up on the 30-second point in our countdown...T-Minus 30 seconds and we've had a go for auto-sequence start...

The solid rocket booster hydraulic power units have started...T-Minus 21 seconds...and the solid rocket booster engine gimbal now underway...

T-Minute Fifteen Seconds. T-Minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, we have main engine start, four, three, two, one, and liftoff! Liftoff of the 25th Space Shuttle Mission (51-L) and it has cleared the tower.

Good roll program confirmed . . . Challenger now heading downrange . . .

Engines beginning throttling down now at 94 percent. Normal throttle for most of the flight is 104 percent, we'll throttle down to 65 percent shortly. Engines at 65 percent . . . three engines running normally . . . three good fuel cells . . . three good APU's . . . Velocity 2,257 feet per second, altitude 4.3 nautical miles, downrange distance three nautical miles. Engines throttling up . . three engines now at 104 percent

The word was innocently given to me as an afterthought after lunch at the parochial school I had attended by a kindergarten teacher who is the mother of a friend from school at the time. When I did my homework that afternoon I had the radio tuned to the local radio station, where ABC Radio (now Citadel Radio) broadcast non-stop news coverage on the local station.

Mission Control: Challenger, go at throttle up.

Commander Scobee: Roger, go at throttle up.

Back then, the local radio station offered ABC News on the hour, Paul Harvey at 8:30, 12:06, and 5:30, Ned Jarrett at 12:20, farm updates at 12:25, South Carolina News Sports Talk at 6:05, and Bruce Williams at 8 along with Gamecock sports – which is vastly different than today's local radio stations which only play junk music.

One minute, Fifteen seconds . . . Velocity 2,900 feet per second . . . altitude nine nautical miles . . . Downrange distance seven nautical miles.

Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation . . . Obviously a major malfunction . . . We have no downlink.

We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight Director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point.

After homework and dinner, along with a continuous pipe of WDIX radio (now defunct) to catch updates on the disaster, it dawned on me that it was a disaster like no other I knew. After homework and dinner, the television was on the disaster for the whole evening. It was the first time I had witnessed a national tragedy of this proportion. And it was devastating to a nation in a fight against the Soviets.

Contingency procedures are in effect.

We will report more as we have information available. Again, to repeat, we have a report relayed through the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. We are now looking at all the contingency operations and awaiting word from any recovery forces in the downrange field.

This is Mission Control Houston. We have no additional word at this time. Reports from the flight dynamics officer indicate that the vehicle apparently exploded and that impact in the water at a point approximately 28.64 degrees north, 80.28 degrees west. We are awaiting verification from . . . as to the location of the recovery forces in the field to see what may be possible at this point, and we will keep you advised as further information becomes available. This is Mission Control.

This is Mission Control Houston. We are coordinating with recovery forces in the field – range safety equipment, recovery vehicles intended for the recovery of the (solid rocket boosters) in the general area. Those parachutes are believed to be paramedics going into that area. To repeat, we had an apparently normal ascent with the data coming to all positions being normal.

Up through approximately the time of main engine throttle back up to 104%, at approximately a minute or so into the flight there was an apparent explosion, the Flight Dynamics Officer reported. Tracking reported that the vehicle had exploded and impacted the water in an area approximately located at 28.64 degrees north, 82.8 degrees west. Recovery forces are proceeding to the area, including ships and a C-130 aircraft. Flight controllers reviewing their data here in Mission Control. We will provide you with more information as it becomes available. This is Mission Control Houston.

It was horrific and was something to a ten-year old was seriously wrong. And it was tragedy that I had never known. I was not born when Kennedy or King were assassinated, and I was never knowing of the death of Presley. But this was a disaster, one of three major “breaking stories” that have stood as major points to me. There would be two more such “breaking” stories, and they occurred within months of each other. Those will be discussed later in the year. But on this day, we remember those names. Francis Richard Scobee. Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis.

All lost twenty-five years ago on this day we remember.

The Video

There was only one live broadcast of this flight. The networks were airing their daytime programming as regularly planned, believing these were normal and successful.




NASA Film: Backup Barbara Morgan observes 51-L:




The Missing Man Flight

On the ten-year anniversary of the disaster, on January 28, 1996, a Missing Man formation was flown during the flyover for Super Bowl XXX. The flyover was led by the son of Challenge commander Francis R. Scobee as a tribute to his late father.




Redemption

On August 8, 2007, after an attempt in 2003 was scrubbed because of another tragedy in the sky, redemption had finally come for a goal of 51-L, twenty-one years later, on STS-118. This time, backup Barbara Morgan finally had her chance, and this time she would serve all two weeks and come home safely. It took over twenty-one years, but NASA's Teacher in Space mission was finally complete.




The shuttle landing.

One more archive: Inside 51-L that day.  ◙

Wally Schirra, R.I.P.

By Mitchell

Wally Schirra had the Right Stuff.

He was one of the seven original Mercury astronauts, but more than that he had the reputation of being a troubleshooter. After Scott Carpenter’s troubled Aurora 7 flight, in which he ran short on fuel, failed to complete his entire flight checklist, and overshot his landing spot (resulting in a delay of hours in being picked up), it was Wally Schirra who authored the textbook mission with his Sigma 7 (named after an engineering symbol) flight. As command pilot of Gemini 6, he had the icy cool to remain atop the fuel-laden rocket instead of ejecting after an engine shutdown stopped the launch, making it possible to relaunch days later. When NASA was recovering from the tragic Apollo 1 fire, it was Wally Schirra who captained the successful Apollo 7 flight that put the space program back on track. Had he still been in the space program after the disastrous Challenger and Columbia fights, he most certainly would have been the astronaut you would have wanted flying the shuttle on its comeback missions.

He was one of my favorite astronauts growing up, along with Gordon Cooper, and I’ve had a fondness and admiration for him ever since. He was the first astronaut to fly in all three of the initial NASA programs – Mercury, Gemini and Apollo – and he became known to millions of television viewers as Walter Cronkite’s partner on CBS’s manned space coverage. (Who can forget Schirra, choked with emotion, watching the first moon landing with Cronkite?)

In fact, walking on the moon was just about all that Wally Schirra failed to accomplish in his distinguished career. He was an American hero, a pillar of the space program, a true embodiment of the stuff that legends are made of – perhaps not the larger-than-life figure that some cut, but no less heroic for that. He died today in California, the fifth of the Original Seven astronauts to die, and with him dies yet another piece of American history. As their time moves farther and farther from ours, it becomes more of a challenge to keep them and their accomplishments in our memory. A challenge, perhaps, but well worth the effort. R.I.P.