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123-476: Notable alumni of the newspaper included historian and biographer Douglas Southall Freeman , future television journalist Roger Mudd , conservative commentator James Kilpatrick , and editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly . During its run, it garnered a reputation as being one of the most politically conservative newspapers in the United States. The News Leader began in nearby Manchester, Virginia , where it

246-479: A C-141 Starlifter aircraft from Kennedy Space Center to the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware . Their caskets were each draped with an American flag and carried past an honor guard and followed by an astronaut escort. After the remains arrived at Dover Air Force Base, they were transferred to the families of the crew members. Scobee and Smith were buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Onizuka

369-479: A " Lost Cause " historian, a pejorative reference to a pseudohistorical apologist interpretation of the cause of the Civil War that deprecates the central role of slavery. Freeman began work on his biography of Lee in 1926; by the time he had completed his four volume work in 1933, he had committed some 6,100 hours to the effort. Following the critical success of R. E. Lee: A Biography , Freeman expanded his study of

492-561: A 20-foot (6 m) piece of the shuttle had been found near the site of a destroyed World War II-era aircraft off the coast of Florida. The discovery was aired on the History Channel on November 22, 2022. Almost all recovered non-organic debris from Challenger is buried in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station missile silos at LC-31 and LC-32 . On April 29, 1986, the astronauts' remains were transferred on

615-482: A biography of Robert E. Lee. Freeman accepted but chose to retain his position at The Richmond News Leader and work longer days to work on the biography. Freeman's research of Lee was exhaustive. He evaluated and cataloged every item about Lee, and he reviewed records at West Point and the War Department and material in private collections. In narrating the general's Civil War years, he used what came to be known as

738-511: A crewed orbiter. To replace Challenger , the construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour , was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992. Subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs and their crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry . The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable spacecraft operated by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It flew for

861-540: A double bore seal, and the gap between segments was filled with putty. When the motor was running, this configuration was designed to compress air in the gap against the upper O-ring, pressing it against the sealing surfaces of its seat. On the SRB Critical Items List, the O-rings were listed as Criticality 1R, which indicated that an O-ring failure could result in the destruction of the vehicle and loss of life, but it

984-437: A force equating to roughly 3,000,000 pounds-force (13 meganewtons), while the right SRB collided with the intertank structure. These events resulted in an abrupt change to the shuttle stack's attitude and direction, which was shrouded from view by the vaporized contents of the now-destroyed ET. As it traveled at Mach 1.92, Challenger took aerodynamic forces it was not designed to withstand and broke into several large pieces:

1107-441: A glass of cold water and a piece of rubber, for which he received media attention. Feynman, a Nobel Prize -winning physicist, advocated for harsher criticism towards NASA in the report and repeatedly disagreed with Rogers. He threatened to remove his name from the report unless it included his personal observations on reliability, which appeared as Appendix F. In the appendix, he lauded the engineering and software accomplishments in

1230-560: A man, look after your men." Freeman married Inez Virginia Goddin on February 5, 1914. They had three children: Mary Tyler, Anne Ballard, and James Douglas. Mary Tyler Freeman married Leslie Cheek, Jr., longtime director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and became a founder or influential officer of several important community organizations, as well as president of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation. The family lived (and Freeman died) in

1353-686: A mansion he named Westbourne in Richmond's west end, a house listed (in 2000) in the National Register of Historic Places . Douglas Southall Freeman died of a heart attack on June 13, 1953, at his home in Richmond, Virginia , at the age of 67. On the morning of his death he had delivered his usual radio broadcast from Richmond. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Freeman's newspaper editorials and daily radio broadcasts made him one of

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1476-478: A moderate approach to race relations, and in his editorials opposed the Byrd Organization —a powerful statewide Democratic political machine run by United States Senator Harry F. Byrd . Freeman retired as editor of The Richmond News Leader on June 25, 1949. Years later, his obituary published in his former newspaper captured the scope of his editorial interests. He must have written close to 600,000 words

1599-471: A post-flight inspection of the left SRB on STS-41-D revealed that soot had blown past the primary O-ring and was found in between the O-rings. Although there was no damage to the secondary O-ring, this indicated that the primary O-ring was not creating a reliable seal and was allowing hot gas to pass. The amount of O-ring erosion was insufficient to prevent the O-ring from sealing, and investigators concluded that

1722-615: A potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings, but neither NASA nor SRB manufacturer Morton Thiokol had addressed this known defect. NASA managers also disregarded engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in cold temperatures and did not report these technical concerns to their superiors. As a result of this disaster, NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, and arranged for deployment of commercial satellites from expendable launch vehicles rather than from

1845-407: A redesigned field joint that introduced a metal lip to limit movement in the joint. They also recommended adding a spacer to provide additional thermal protection and using an O-ring with a larger cross section. In July   1985, Morton Thiokol ordered redesigned SRB casings, with the intention of using already-manufactured casings for the upcoming launches until the redesigned cases were available

1968-426: A report on the deaths of the crew from physician and Skylab 2 astronaut Joseph P. Kerwin : The findings are inconclusive. The impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface was so violent that evidence of damage occurring in the seconds which followed the disintegration was masked. Our final conclusions are: Pressurization could have enabled consciousness for the entire fall until impact. The crew cabin hit

2091-418: A seven volume biography of George Washington. Applying the same approach of exhaustive research and writing narrative based on objective fact, Freeman completed the first two volumes, titled Young Washington , in 1948. The following year, he retired from journalism in order to complete his monumental work on Washington. George Washington Volume 3: Planter and Patriot and George Washington Volume 4: Leader of

2214-527: A single morning paper under the Times-Dispatch banner, effective June 1, 1992. News Leader publisher J. Stewart Bryan III, in referencing the company's dual-ownership of both newspapers, said, "[The News Leader is] a grand old name, but we could no longer afford the luxury of competing with ourselves." The final edition of the News Leader was printed on May 30, with the single headline, " Nevermore ." On

2337-522: A tang from the upper segment fitting into the clevis of the lower segment. Each field joint was sealed with two ~20 foot (6 meter) diameter Viton-rubber O-rings around the circumference of the SRB and had a cross-section diameter of 0.280 inches (7.1 mm). The O-rings were required to contain the hot, high-pressure gases produced by the burning solid propellant and allowed for the SRBs to be rated for crewed missions. The two O-rings were configured to create

2460-493: A wing, the (still firing) main engines, the crew cabin and hypergolic fuel leaking from the ruptured reaction control system were among the parts identified exiting the vapor cloud. The disaster unfolded at an altitude of 46,000 feet (14 km). Both SRBs survived the breakup of the shuttle stack and continued flying, now unguided by the attitude and trajectory control of their mothership, until their flight termination systems were activated at T+110 . At T+73.191 , there

2583-500: A year, campaigned for the Federal Reserve Act , for abolition of the old City Administration Board, for repeal of the fee system, for establishment of the battlefield parks, for Richmond's new charter ... Among the legacies he left to us here on the paper were his "Seventy Rules for Good Writing" ... he put brevity just behind accuracy in his list of virtues. In addition to his forty-year career in journalism, Freeman became one of

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2706-688: Is best known for his multi-volume biographies of Robert E. Lee and George Washington , for both of which he was awarded Pulitzer Prizes . Douglas Southall Freeman was born May 16, 1886, in Lynchburg, Virginia , to Bettie Allen Hamner and Walker Burford Freeman, an insurance agent who had served four years in Robert E. Lee 's Army of Northern Virginia . From childhood, Freeman exhibited an interest in Southern history. In Lynchburg, his family lived at 416 Main Street, near

2829-518: Is estimated to have been between 12 and 20 times that of gravity ( g ). Within two seconds it had dropped below 4   g, and within ten seconds the cabin was in free fall . The forces involved at this stage were probably insufficient to cause major injury to the crew. At least some of the crew were alive and conscious after the breakup, as Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) were activated for Smith and two unidentified crewmembers, but not for Scobee. The PEAPs were not intended for in-flight use, and

2952-670: The Atlantic Ocean under a parachute. NASA retrieval teams recovered the SRBs and returned them to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), where they were disassembled and their components were reused on future flights. Each SRB was constructed in four main sections at the factory in Utah and transported to KSC, then assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC with three tang-and-clevis field joints, each joint consisting of

3075-505: The Civil Rights Movement , the News Leader editorial page, like that of the Times-Dispatch , took a strong segregationist stance. Years after his tenure at the paper, Kilpatrick wrote that he had been an "ardent segregationist", reflecting his views in his News Leader editorials, but had since renounced segregation. In his memoirs , Mudd recalled that News Leader reporters were often told to identify local white ministers with

3198-529: The Johnson Space Center (JSC) who advised him that ice did not threaten the safety of the orbiter, and he decided to proceed with the launch. The launch was delayed for an additional hour to allow more ice to melt. The ice team performed an inspection at T–20 minutes which indicated that the ice was melting, and Challenger was cleared to launch at 11:38 a.m. EST, with an air temperature of 36 °F (2 °C). At T+0, Challenger launched from

3321-551: The Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) at 11:38:00   a.m. Beginning at T+0.678 until T+3.375 seconds, nine puffs of dark gray smoke were recorded escaping from the right-hand SRB near the aft strut that attached the booster to the ET . It was later determined that these smoke puffs were caused by joint rotation in the aft field joint of the right-hand SRB at ignition. The cold temperature in

3444-487: The Launch Commit Criteria . In addition to its effect on the O-rings, the cold temperatures caused ice to form on the fixed service structure . To keep pipes from freezing, water was slowly run from the system; it could not be entirely drained because of the upcoming launch. As a result, ice formed from 240 feet (73 m) down in the freezing temperatures. Engineers at Rockwell International , which manufactured

3567-519: The News Leader as "one of nation's great newspapers" and added, "[T]his distinctive journalistic voice will be missed. Its disappearance represents yet another advance of homogenization and yet another erosion of the sense of place in American journalism. Ave atque vale ." Douglas Southall Freeman Douglas Southall Freeman (May 16, 1886 – June 13, 1953) was an American historian, biographer, newspaper editor, radio commentator, and author. He

3690-421: The News Leader began experiencing a steady decline in circulation ; the decline, like those of other afternoon newspapers at the time, was due primarily to the growth of television news outlets. By the end of the 1980s, it was obvious Richmond was no longer big enough to support separate morning and evening papers. In 1991, Media General announced that it would merge the News Leader and the Times-Dispatch into

3813-467: The News Leader for decades, who wrote about numerous personal experiences tied with the paper. Staff members were transferred to the Times-Dispatch after the merger took place. The end of the News Leader attracted national attention. Stories about the newspaper and its history appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times . National Review , a conservative periodical , hailed

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3936-531: The Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral , Florida, at 11:39   a.m. EST (16:39   UTC ). It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight. The mission, designated STS-51-L ,

4059-477: The Space Shuttle program . Challenger (OV-099) was the second orbiter constructed after its conversion from a structural test article . The orbiter contained the crew compartment, where the crew predominantly lived and worked throughout a mission. Three Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were mounted at the aft end of the orbiter and provided thrust during launch. Once in space, the crew maneuvered using

4182-750: The Times-Dispatch to three families, including that of Norfolk newspaperman Samuel L. Slover, publisher of The Virginian-Pilot and the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch . In 1940, Stewart Bryan repurchased the Times-Dispatch , forming the corporation Richmond Newspapers Inc., which became a subsidiary of the newly formed Media General in 1969. Stewart Bryan died in 1944, leaving Richmond Newspapers Inc. to his son, David Tennant Bryan, who served as publisher of both papers until 1978, when his son John Stewart Bryan III took over. Tennant Bryan remained as chairman, president and CEO of Media General until his son succeeded him in 1990. Tennant Bryan died in 1998. During

4305-496: The death certificates ; NASA officials ultimately released the death certificates of the crew members. The IUS that would have been used to boost the orbit of the TDRS-B satellite was one of the first pieces of debris recovered. There was no indication that there had been premature ignition of the IUS, which had been one of the suspected causes for the disaster. Debris from the three SSMEs

4428-412: The range safety officer destroyed them. The crew compartment, human remains, and many other fragments from the shuttle were recovered from the ocean floor after a three-month search-and-recovery operation. The exact timing of the deaths of the crew is unknown, but several crew members are thought to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. The orbiter had no escape system , and the impact of

4551-488: The " fog of war " technique, providing readers only the limited information that Lee himself had at a given moment. That helped convey the confusion of war that Lee experienced as well as the processes by which Lee grappled with problems and made decisions. R. E. Lee: A Biography was published in four volumes in 1934 and 1935. In its book review, The New York Times declared it "Lee complete for all time." Historian Dumas Malone wrote, "Great as my personal expectations were,

4674-521: The 196,726 lb (89,233 kg) of both SRB shells, 102,500 lb (46,500 kg) was recovered, another 54,000 lb (24,000 kg) was found but not recovered, and 40,226 lb (18,246 kg) was never found. On March 7, Air Force divers identified potential crew compartment debris, which was confirmed the next day by divers from the USS Preserver . The damage to the crew compartment indicated that it had remained largely intact during

4797-503: The Confederacy with the three-volume Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command , published in 1942, 1943, and 1944. It presents a unique combination of military strategy, biography, and Civil War history, and it shows how armies actually work. Published during World War II, it had a great influence on American military leaders and strategists. A few months after the conclusion of the war, Freeman

4920-525: The ET, causing lateral acceleration that was felt by the crew. At the same time, pressure in the LH2 tank began dropping. Pilot Mike Smith said "Uh-oh," which was the last crew comment recorded. At T+73.124 , white vapor was seen flowing away from the ET, after which the aft dome of the LH2 tank fell off. The resulting release of all liquid hydrogen in the tank pushed the LH2 tank forward into the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank with

5043-558: The NASA Verification/Certification Committee requested further tests on joint integrity to include testing in the temperature range of 40 to 90 °F (4 to 32 °C) and with only a single O-ring installed. The NASA program managers decided that their current level of testing was sufficient and further testing was not required. In December   1982, the Critical Items List was updated to indicate that

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5166-572: The NASA accident investigation, the Space Shuttle program, and the Morton Thiokol recommendation to launch despite O-ring safety issues. On February   15, Rogers released a statement that established the commission's changing role to investigate the accident independent of NASA due to concerns of the failures of the internal processes at NASA. The commission created four investigative panels to research

5289-443: The NASA administrator to oversee all safety, reliability, and quality assurance functions in NASA programs. Additionally, the commission addressed issues with overall safety and maintenance for the orbiter, and it recommended the addition of the means for the crew to escape during controlled gliding flight. During a televised hearing on February   11, Feynman demonstrated the loss of rubber's elasticity in cold temperatures using

5412-667: The O-rings would seal at temperatures colder than 53 °F (12 °C), the coldest launch of the Space Shuttle to date. Morton Thiokol employees Robert Lund, the Vice President of Engineering, and Joe Kilminster, the Vice President of the Space Booster Programs, recommended against launching until the temperature was above 53 °F (12 °C). The teleconference held a recess to allow for private discussion amongst Morton Thiokol management. When it resumed, Morton Thiokol leadership had changed their opinion and stated that

5535-628: The Revolution were published in 1951. The following year, he published George Washington Volume 5: Victory with the Help of France (1952). Freeman completed work on George Washington Volume 6: Patriot and President just before he died; it was published after his death in 1954. The concluding book, George Washington Volume 7: First in Peace , was written by Freeman's associates, John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth , based on Freeman's original research and

5658-531: The SRBs were kept wet during recovery, and their unused propellant was ignited once they were brought ashore. The failed joint on the right SRB was first located on sonar on March   1. Subsequent dives to 560 ft (170 m) by the NR-1 submarine on April   5 and the SEA-LINK I submersible on April   12 confirmed that it was the damaged field joint, and it was successfully recovered on April   13. Of

5781-635: The State of the Union, and instead addressed the nation about the disaster from the Oval Office . On January   31, Ronald and Nancy Reagan traveled to the Johnson Space Center to speak at a memorial service honoring the crew members. During the ceremony, an Air Force band sang " God Bless America " as NASA T-38 Talon jets flew directly over the scene in the traditional missing-man formation . Soon after

5904-588: The Sun, and deploy and retrieve a SPARTAN satellite. The mission was originally scheduled for July   1985, but was delayed to November and then to January   1986. The mission was scheduled to launch on January   22, but was delayed until January 28. The air temperature on January 28 was predicted to be a record low for a Space Shuttle launch. The air temperature was forecast to drop to 18 °F (−8 °C) overnight before rising to 22 °F (−6 °C) at 6:00   a.m. and 26 °F (−3 °C) at

6027-540: The Union speech. In that speech, Reagan had intended to mention an X-ray experiment launched on Challenger and designed by a guest he had invited to the address, but he did not further discuss the Challenger launch. In the rescheduled State of the Union address on February 4, Reagan mentioned the deceased Challenger crew members and modified his remarks about the X-ray experiment as "launched and lost". In April   1986,

6150-411: The United States. The cause of the disaster was the failure of the primary and secondary O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB). The record-low temperatures on the morning of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints. Shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached, and hot pressurized gas from within the SRB leaked through

6273-535: The University of Richmond, where Freeman served as Rector for seven years, criticized the University board of trustees for refusing to remove Freeman's name from a campus building, although he had "supported racial segregation, opposed interracial marriage and promoted racist concepts underlying the eugenics movement." The "greatest inheritance," Freeman once said, was "clean blood, right-thinking ancestry." Space Shuttle Challenger disaster On January 28, 1986,

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6396-727: The White House released a report that concluded there had been no pressure from the White House for NASA to launch Challenger prior to the State of the Union. Nationally televised live coverage of the launch and explosion was provided by CNN . To promote the Teacher in Space program with McAuliffe as a crewmember, NASA had arranged for many students in the US to view the launch live at school with their teachers. Other networks, such as CBS , soon cut in to their affiliate feeds to broadcast continuous coverage of

6519-405: The aft attach strut on the right SRB, right before the vehicle passed through max q at T+59.000 . The high aerodynamic forces and wind shear likely broke the aluminum oxide seal that had replaced eroded O-rings, allowing the flame to burn through the joint. Within one second from when it was first recorded, the plume became well-defined, and the enlarging hole caused a drop in internal pressure in

6642-651: The age of 22, he earned a Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore . Unable to secure a position in academia, Freeman joined the staff of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1909, and, in 1915, at the age of 29, he became editor of The Richmond News Leader —a position he held for 34 years. In 1911, when Freeman was 25 years old, he came into possession of a cache of long-lost wartime communications between Robert E. Lee and Confederate president Jefferson Davis . Freeman spent four years working on

6765-607: The amount of training, quality control, and repair work that was available for each mission. The commission published a series of recommendations to improve the safety of the Space Shuttle program. It proposed a redesign of the joints in the SRB that would prevent gas from blowing past the O-rings. It also recommended that the program's management be restructured to keep project managers from being pressured to adhere to unsafe organizational deadlines, and should include astronauts to address crew safety concerns better. It proposed that an office for safety be established reporting directly to

6888-591: The astronauts never trained with them for an in-flight emergency. The location of Smith's activation switch, on the back side of his seat, indicated that either Resnik or Onizuka likely activated it for him. Investigators found their remaining unused air supply consistent with the expected consumption during the post-breakup trajectory. While analyzing the wreckage, investigators discovered that several electrical system switches on Smith's right-hand panel had been moved from their usual launch positions. The switches had lever locks on top of them that must be pulled out before

7011-482: The atmosphere, where it would break apart during reentry and its pieces would land in the Indian or Pacific Ocean . Two solid rocket boosters (SRBs), built by Morton Thiokol at the time of the disaster, provided the majority of thrust at liftoff. They were connected to the external tank, and burned for the first two minutes of flight. The SRBs separated from the orbiter once they had expended their fuel and fell into

7134-464: The cause of the accident was hot gas blowing past the O-rings in the field joint on the right SRB, and found no other potential causes for the disaster. It attributed the accident to a faulty design of the field joint that was unacceptably sensitive to changes in temperature, dynamic loading, and the character of its materials. The report was critical of NASA and Morton Thiokol, and emphasized that both organizations had overlooked evidence that indicated

7257-491: The cold temperatures caused a loss of flexibility in the O-rings that decreased their ability to seal the field joints, which allowed hot gas and soot to flow past the primary O-ring. O-ring erosion occurred on all but one ( STS-51-J ) of the Space Shuttle flights in 1985, and erosion of both the primary and secondary O-rings occurred on STS-51-B . To correct the issues with O-ring erosion, engineers at Morton Thiokol, led by Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly , proposed

7380-483: The crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable. The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program . President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident. The commission criticized NASA 's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. Test data since 1977 demonstrated

7503-475: The dangers of groupthink . Roger Boisjoly and Allan McDonald became speakers who advocated for responsible workplace decision making and engineering ethics. Information designer Edward Tufte has argued that the Challenger accident was the result of poor communications and overly complicated explanations on the part of engineers, and stated that showing the correlation of ambient air temperature and O-ring erosion amounts would have been sufficient to communicate

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7626-440: The day's news. After his second broadcast, he would drive home for a short nap and lunch and then worked another five or six hours on his current historical project, with classical music, frequently the work of Joseph Haydn , playing in the background. Freeman was a devout Baptist who prayed daily in the small chapel he built in his home. He acknowledged that his Christian faith played a central role throughout his life. Freeman

7749-521: The different aspects of the mission. The Accident Analysis Panel, chaired by Kutyna, used data from salvage operations and testing to determine the exact cause behind the accident. The Development and Production Panel, chaired by Sutter, investigated the hardware contractors and how they interacted with NASA. The Pre-Launch Activities Panel, chaired by Acheson, focused on the final assembly processes and pre-launch activities conducted at KSC. The Mission Planning and Operations Panel, chaired by Ride, investigated

7872-406: The disaster and its aftermath. Press interest in the disaster increased in the following days; the number of reporters at KSC increased from 535 on the day of the launch to 1,467 reporters three days later. In the aftermath of the accident, NASA was criticized for not making key personnel available to the press. In the absence of information, the press published articles suggesting the external tank

7995-403: The disaster, US politicians expressed concern that White House officials, including Chief of Staff Donald Regan and Communications Director Pat Buchanan , had pressured NASA to launch Challenger before the scheduled January 28 State of the Union address, because Reagan had planned to mention the launch in his remarks. In March 1986, the White House released a copy of the original State of

8118-530: The disaster, a system was implemented to allow the crew to escape in gliding flight , but this system would not have been usable to escape an explosion during ascent. Immediately after the disaster, the NASA Launch Recovery Director launched the two SRB recovery ships, MV Freedom Star and MV Liberty Star , to proceed to the impact area to recover debris, and requested the support of US military aircraft and ships. Owing to falling debris from

8241-518: The documents, and in 1915, he published Lee's Dispatches . The book was received enthusiastically by Civil War historians, and it became an important primary source for Civil War scholars. Written between June 2, 1862, and April 1, 1865, Lee's letters to Davis revealed the general's strategy with clearer perspective, shed new light on some of Lee's decisions, and underscored his close and always co-operative relationship with Davis. In his Introduction, Freeman summarized seven major revelations contained in

8364-409: The doors, shutting down telephone communications, and freezing computer terminals to collect data from them. The crew cabin, which was made of reinforced aluminum, separated in one piece from the rest of the orbiter. It then traveled in a ballistic arc , reaching the apogee of 65,000 feet (20 km) approximately 25 seconds after the explosion. At the time of separation, the maximum acceleration

8487-561: The evidence presented on the failure of the O-rings was inconclusive and that there was a substantial margin in the event of a failure or erosion. They stated that their decision was to proceed with the launch. Morton Thiokol leadership submitted a recommendation for launch, and the teleconference ended. Lawrence Mulloy, the NASA SRB project manager, called Arnold Aldrich, the NASA Mission Management Team Leader, to discuss

8610-527: The explosion, the RSO kept recovery forces from the impact area until 12:37   p.m. The size of the recovery operations increased to 12 aircraft and 8 ships by 7:00   p.m. Surface operations recovered debris from the orbiter and external tank. The surface recovery operations ended on February   7. On January   31, the US Navy was tasked with submarine recovery operations. The search efforts prioritized

8733-406: The field joint. The Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were throttled down as scheduled for maximum dynamic pressure (max q) . During its ascent, the Space Shuttle encountered wind shear conditions beginning at T+37 , but they were within design limits of the vehicle and were countered by the guidance system. At T+58.788 , a tracking film camera captured the beginnings of a plume near

8856-579: The first radio analysts, in 1925. His twice-daily radio broadcasts helped make him one of the most influential men in Virginia. From 1934 to 1941, he commuted weekly by air to New York City to teach journalism at Columbia University . He also taught as a lecturer at the United States Army War College for seven years, and served as Rector of the University of Richmond . Freeman's work ethic

8979-469: The first time in April 1981, and was used to conduct in-orbit research, and deploy commercial, military, and scientific payloads. At launch, it consisted of the orbiter , which contained the crew and payload, the external tank (ET), and the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The orbiter was a reusable, winged vehicle that launched vertically and landed as a glider. Five orbiters were built during

9102-442: The following year. The Space Shuttle mission, named STS-51-L , was the twenty-fifth Space Shuttle flight and the tenth flight of Challenger . The crew was announced on January   27,   1985, and was commanded by Dick Scobee . Michael Smith was assigned as the pilot, and the mission specialists were Ellison Onizuka , Judith Resnik , and Ronald McNair . The two payload specialists were Gregory Jarvis , who

9225-409: The formal prefix "The Reverend", but local black ministers were simply to be called "Reverend." Dr. Maurice Duke, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University , claimed that the News Leader remained "pro- Confederacy " into the 1970s, while Raymond H. Boone, publisher of the black-oriented Richmond Free Press , blamed the News Leader for racial divisions in the city. Beginning in the 1980s,

9348-500: The funding for the Space Shuttle program, reviewed the findings of the Rogers Commission as part of its investigation. The committee agreed with the Rogers Commission that the failed SRB field joint was the cause of the accident, and that NASA and Morton Thiokol failed to act despite numerous warnings of the potential dangers of the SRB. The committee's report further emphasized safety considerations of other components and recommended

9471-483: The home of Confederate general Jubal Early . The family moved to the former Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia , in 1892 at the height of the monument commemoration movement that memorialized Virginia's Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart , and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson . In 1904, Freeman was awarded an A.B. from Richmond College , where he had been a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. In 1908, at

9594-401: The initial explosion but was extensively damaged when it impacted the ocean. The remains of the crew were badly damaged from impact and submersion, and were not intact bodies. The USS Preserver made multiple trips to return debris and remains to port, and continued crew compartment recovery until April   4. During the recovery of the remains of the crew, Jarvis's body floated away and

9717-433: The initial search for debris and covered 486 square nautical miles (1,670 km ) at water depths between 70 feet (21 m) and 1,200 feet (370 m). The sonar operations discovered 881 potential locations for debris, of which 187 pieces were later confirmed to be from the orbiter. The debris from the SRBs was widely distributed due to the detonation of their linear shaped charges. The identification of SRB material

9840-450: The joint and burned through the aft attachment strut connecting it to the external propellant tank (ET), then into the tank itself. The collapse of the ET's internal structures and the rotation of the SRB that followed threw the shuttle stack, traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92, into a direction that allowed aerodynamic forces to tear the orbiter apart. Both SRBs detached from the now-destroyed ET and continued to fly uncontrollably until

9963-441: The joint had prevented the O-rings from creating a seal. Rainfall from the preceding time on the launchpad had likely accumulated within the field joint, further compromising the sealing capability of the O-rings. As a result, hot gas was able to travel past the O-rings and erode them. Molten aluminum oxides from the burned propellant resealed the joint and created a temporary barrier against further hot gas and flame escaping through

10086-462: The launch decision and weather concerns, but did not mention the O-ring discussion; the two agreed to proceed with the launch. An overnight measurement taken by the KSC Ice Team recorded the left SRB was 25 °F (−4 °C) and the right SRB was 8 °F (−13 °C). These measurements were recorded for engineering data and not reported, because the temperature of the SRBs was not part of

10209-620: The letters. For example, the letters reveal that the Confederate high command in 1862 considered but rejected a bold proposal to strengthen Stonewall Jackson 's army in the Shenandoah Valley and embark on a vigorous offensive campaign against the North, even at the expense of defending Richmond. Following the immediate critical success of Lee's Dispatches , Freeman was approached by New York publisher Charles Scribner's Sons and invited to write

10332-485: The limited attention paid to Lee's relationship to slavery. Charles B. Dew wrote that Freeman's "magisterial" Lee's Lieutenants , United Daughters of the Confederacy magazine, and Facts the Historians Leave Out: A Youth's Confederate Primer by John S. Tilley were crucial titles in his adolescent indoctrination into the mainstream white Southern worldview of the 1950s. In 2021, some students and faculty at

10455-642: The most influential Virginians of his day, his analysis of World War I and World War II military campaigns bringing him recognition throughout the country, especially in military circles. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt thanked him for suggesting the use of the term "liberation," rather than "invasion," of Europe. Military commanders such as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Generals George C. Marshall , Douglas MacArthur , and Dwight D. Eisenhower sought his friendship and advice. Eisenhower said Freeman first convinced him to think seriously about running for

10578-414: The ocean surface at 207 mph (333 km/h) approximately two minutes and 45 seconds after breakup. The estimated deceleration was 200 g , far exceeding structural limits of the crew compartment or crew survivability levels. The mid-deck floor had not suffered buckling or tearing, as would result from a rapid decompression, but stowed equipment showed damage consistent with decompression, and debris

10701-401: The orbiter, were concerned that ice would be violently thrown during launch and could potentially damage the orbiter's thermal protection system or be aspirated into one of the engines. Rocco Petrone , the head of Rockwell's space transportation division, and his team determined that the potential damage from ice made the mission unsafe to fly. Arnold Aldrich consulted with engineers at KSC and

10824-424: The planning that went into mission development, along with potential concerns over crew safety and pressure to adhere to a schedule. Over a period of four months, the commission interviewed over 160 individuals, held at least 35 investigative sessions, and involved more than 6,000 NASA employees, contractors, and support personnel. The commission published its report on June 6, 1986. The commission determined that

10947-418: The potential danger with the SRB field joints. It noted that NASA accepted the risk of O-ring erosion without evaluating how it could potentially affect the safety of a mission. The commission concluded that the safety culture and management structure at NASA were insufficient to properly report, analyze, and prevent flight issues. It stated that the pressure to increase the rate of flights negatively affected

11070-727: The potential dangers of the cold-weather launch. Boisjoly contested this assertion and stated that the data presented by Tufte were not as simple or available as Tufte stated. The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, also known as the Rogers Commission after its chairman, was formed on February   6. Its members were Chairman William P. Rogers , Vice Chairman Neil Armstrong , David Acheson , Eugene Covert , Richard Feynman , Robert Hotz, Donald Kutyna , Sally Ride , Robert Rummel, Joseph Sutter , Arthur Walker , Albert Wheelon, and Chuck Yeager . The commission held hearings that discussed

11193-584: The presidency. In 1958, Freeman was posthumously awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for his seven-volume biography of George Washington . In 1955, the Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters honored Freeman by creating the Douglas Southall Freeman Award for public service in radio journalism. Eric Foner is more critical of Freeman, whose biography of Lee Foner calls a " hagiography ," criticizing its lack of nuance and

11316-406: The program's development, but he argued that multiple components, including the avionics and SSMEs in addition to the SRBs, were more dangerous and accident-prone than original NASA estimates had indicated. The US House Committee on Science and Technology conducted an investigation of the Challenger disaster and released a report on October   29, 1986. The committee, which had authorized

11439-753: The realization far surpassed them." In 1935, Freeman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his four-volume biography. Freeman's R. E. Lee: A Biography established the Virginia School of Civil War scholarship, an approach to writing Civil War history that concentrated on the Eastern Theater of the war, focused the narrative on generals over the common soldier, centered the analysis on military campaigns over social and political events, and treated his Confederate subjects with sympathy. This approach to writing Civil War history would lead some critics to label Freeman

11562-506: The recovery of the right SRB, followed by the crew compartment, and then the remaining payload, orbiter pieces, and ET. The search for debris formally began on February   8 with the rescue and salvage ship USS  Preserver , and eventually grew to sixteen ships, of which three were managed by NASA, four by the US Navy , one by the US Air Force and eight by independent contractors. The surface ships used side-scan sonar to make

11685-462: The right SRB. A leak had begun in the liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank of the ET at T+64.660 , as indicated by the changing shape of the plume. The SSMEs pivoted to compensate for the booster burn-through, which was creating an unexpected thrust on the vehicle. The pressure in the external LH2 tank began to drop at T+66.764 indicating that the flame had burned from the SRB into the tank. The crew and flight controllers made no indication they were aware of

11808-404: The safety of the launch. Morton Thiokol engineers expressed their concerns about the effect of low temperatures on the resilience of the rubber O-rings. As the colder temperatures lowered the elasticity of the rubber O-rings, the engineers feared that the O-rings would not be extruded to form a seal at the time of launch. The engineers argued that they did not have enough data to determine whether

11931-436: The same day, Bryan's The Times and Williams' The Richmond Dispatch merged to become the Richmond Times-Dispatch , owned by Bryan. Bryan died in 1908, shortly after buying the News Leader from Williams, and left both papers to his son John Stewart Bryan . Both newspapers, the two primary sources of news in Richmond and the main competitors of each other, were owned and published by Stewart Bryan until 1914, when he sold

12054-593: The same day, the paper also printed a special commemorative magazine showing past front pages from the News Leader reporting on historic events from the 1890s to the 1990s, including the Hindenburg disaster , the attack on Pearl Harbor , the John F. Kennedy assassination , the Challenger disaster , and the First Persian Gulf War . The magazine also featured letters to the editor by local readers, many of whom had read

12177-585: The scheduled launch time of 9:38   a.m. Based upon O-ring erosion that had occurred in warmer launches, Morton Thiokol engineers were concerned over the effect the record-cold temperatures would have on the seal provided by the SRB O-rings for the launch. Cecil Houston, the manager of the KSC office of the Marshall Space Flight Center, set up a conference call on the evening of January 27 to discuss

12300-469: The secondary O-ring could not provide a backup to the primary O-ring, as it would not necessarily form a seal in the event of joint rotation. The O-rings were redesignated as Criticality   1, removing the "R" to indicate it was no longer considered a redundant system. The first occurrence of in-flight O-ring erosion occurred on the right SRB on STS-2 in November   1981. In August   1984,

12423-406: The simulated internal pressure of a launch. Joint rotation, which occurred when the tang and clevis bent away from each other, reduced the pressure on the O-rings, which weakened their seals and made it possible for combustion gases to erode the O-rings. NASA engineers suggested that the field joints should be redesigned to include shims around the O-rings, but they received no response. In 1980,

12546-500: The situation. Obviously a major malfunction. We have no downlink." Soon afterwards, he said, "We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded. The flight director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point." In Mission Control, flight director Jay Greene ordered that contingency procedures be put into effect, which included locking

12669-435: The soot between the O-rings resulted from non-uniform pressure at the time of ignition. The January   1985 launch of STS-51-C was the coldest Space Shuttle launch to date. The air temperature was 62 °F (17 °C) at the time of launch, and the calculated O-ring temperature was 53 °F (12 °C). Post-flight analysis revealed erosion in primary O-rings in both SRBs. Morton Thiokol engineers determined that

12792-441: The switch could be moved. Later tests established that neither the force of the explosion nor the impact with the ocean could have moved them, indicating that Smith made the switch changes, presumably in a futile attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter. On July 28, 1986, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Flight, former astronaut Richard H. Truly , released

12915-460: The two smaller, aft-mounted Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines. When it launched, the orbiter was connected to the ET , which held the fuel for the SSMEs. The ET consisted of a larger tank for liquid hydrogen (LH2) and a smaller tank for liquid oxygen (LOX), both of which were required for the SSMEs to operate. After its fuel had been expended, the ET separated from the orbiter and reentered

13038-459: The vehicle and flight anomalies. At T+68 , the CAPCOM , Richard O. Covey , told the crew, " Challenger , go at throttle up," indicating that the SSMEs had throttled up to 104% thrust. In response to Covey, Scobee said, "Roger, go at throttle up"; this was the last communication from Challenger on the air-to-ground loop. At T+72.284 , the right SRB pulled away from the aft strut that attached it to

13161-715: Was a burst of static on the air-to-ground loop as the vehicle broke up, which was later attributed to ground-based radios searching for a signal from the destroyed spacecraft. NASA Public Affairs Officer Steve Nesbitt was initially unaware of the explosion and continued to read out flight information. At T+89 , after video of the explosion was seen in Mission Control , the Ground Control Officer reported "negative contact (and) loss of downlink " as they were no longer receiving transmissions from Challenger . Nesbitt stated, "Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at

13284-415: Was also a Virginian, and described himself as "deeply rooted in the soil of old Virginia." He believed in the importance of continuity, even in personal geography, once writing, "I think the American people lose a large part of the joy of life because they do not live for generations in the same place." Freeman believed in the importance of a character. His definition of leadership was, "Know your stuff, be

13407-464: Was asked to join an official tour of American forces in Europe and Japan. Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command established Freeman as the preeminent military historian in the country, and led to close friendships with United States generals George C. Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower . After completing his exhaustive studies of Lee, his generals, and the Confederate war effort, Freeman started work on

13530-648: Was assigned to conduct research for the Hughes Aircraft Company , and Christa McAuliffe , who flew as part of the Teacher in Space Project . The primary mission of the Challenger crew was to use an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) to deploy a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), named TDRS-B , that would have been part of a constellation to enable constant communication with orbiting spacecraft. The crew also planned to study Halley's Comet as it passed near

13653-779: Was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu , Hawaii. McNair was buried in Rest Lawn Memorial Park in Lake City, South Carolina, but his remains were later moved within the town to the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Memorial Park. Resnik was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the water. McAuliffe was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire . Jarvis

13776-484: Was considered a redundant system due to the secondary O-ring. Evaluations of the proposed SRB design in the early 1970s and field joint testing showed that the wide tolerances between the mated parts allowed the O-rings to be extruded from their seats rather than compressed. This extrusion was judged to be acceptable by NASA and Morton Thiokol despite concerns of NASA's engineers. A 1977 test showed that up to 0.052 inches (1.3 mm) of joint rotation occurred during

13899-642: Was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean . Unidentified crew remains were buried at the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial in Arlington on May 20, 1986. President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to give the 1986 State of the Union Address on January   28,   1986, the evening of the Challenger disaster. After a discussion with his aides, Reagan postponed

14022-432: Was embedded between the two forward windows that may have caused a loss of pressure. Impact damage to the crew cabin was severe enough that it could not be determined whether the crew cabin had previously been damaged enough to lose pressurization. Unlike other spacecraft, the Space Shuttle did not allow for crew escape during powered flight. Launch escape systems had been considered during development, but NASA's conclusion

14145-428: Was founded as The Leader by J. F. Bradley and Ben P. Owen, Jr. in 1888. It was purchased in 1896 by Richmond newspaper publisher Joseph Bryan, who re-launched the paper on November 30 as The Evening Leader . On January 26, 1903, The Evening Leader merged with The Richmond News , which Harvey L. Wilson had founded in 1899 and John L. Williams had bought in 1900, to form The Richmond News Leader , owned by Williams. On

14268-418: Was legendary. Throughout his life, he kept a demanding schedule that allowed him to accomplish a great deal in his two full-time careers, as a journalist and as a historian. When at home, he rose at three every morning and drove to his newspaper office, saluting Robert E. Lee's monument on Monument Avenue as he passed. Twice daily, he walked to a nearby radio studio, where he gave news broadcasts and discussed

14391-593: Was not located until April   15, several weeks after the other remains had been positively identified. Once remains were brought to port, pathologists from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology worked to identify the human remains, but could not determine the exact cause of death for any of them. Medical examiners in Brevard County disputed the legality of transferring human remains to US military officials to conduct autopsies, and refused to issue

14514-457: Was primarily conducted by crewed submarines and submersibles. The vehicles were dispatched to investigate potential debris located during the search phase. Surface ships lifted the SRB debris with the help of technical divers and underwater remotely operated vehicles to attach the necessary slings to raise the debris with cranes. The solid propellant in the SRBs posed a risk, as it became more volatile after being submerged. Recovered portions of

14637-530: Was published in 1957. Historian and George Washington biographer John E. Ferling maintains that no other biography of Washington compares to that of Freeman's work. Freeman's considerable literary achievements have overshadowed his career as editor of The Richmond News Leader . Between 1915 and 1949, he wrote an estimated 600,000 words of editorial copy every year. He earned a national reputation among military scholars for his analyses of operations during World War I and World War II . His editorials expressed

14760-440: Was recovered from February   14 to   28, and post-recovery analysis produced results consistent with functional engines suddenly losing their LH2 fuel supply. Deepwater recovery operations continued until April   29, with smaller scale, shallow recovery operations continuing until August   29. On December 17, 1996, two pieces of the orbiter were found at Cocoa Beach . On November 10, 2022, NASA announced that

14883-459: Was that the Space Shuttle's expected high reliability would preclude the need for one. Modified SR-71 Blackbird ejection seats and full pressure suits were used for the two-person crews on the first four Space Shuttle orbital test flights, but they were disabled and later removed for the operational flights. Escape options for the operational flights were considered but not implemented due to their complexity, high cost, and heavy weight. After

15006-529: Was the 10th flight for the orbiter and the 25th flight of the Space Shuttle fleet. The crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher In Space program. The latter task resulted in a higher-than-usual media interest in and coverage of the mission; the launch and subsequent disaster were seen live in many schools across

15129-443: Was the cause of the explosion. Until 2010, CNN's live broadcast of the launch and disaster was the only known on-location video footage from within range of the launch site. Additional amateur and professional recordings have since become publicly available. The Challenger accident has been used as a case study for subjects such as engineering safety , the ethics of whistleblowing , communications and group decision-making, and

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