Forty years ago, I was at Mission Control at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for the launch of the Challenger. I was working in data communications. My job was to ensure all telemetry links between the space shuttle and NASA's ground communications system (NASCOM) were operational. Everything was green on my board, the shuttle launched, and a few seconds later, everything went to hell. I stared at my controls, tried to get things to reconnect, and then I finally looked up at the TV display.
You know what I saw. We all saw it that day.
In schools across the country, kids from kindergartners to high school students were ready to watch Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, launch into orbit. Instead, they saw a tragedy.
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By 1986, space flight had become passe. Most assumed that the space shuttle could be counted on to launch flawlessly time after time. There had been disasters. But most Americans didn't know about Soyuz 1's parachute failure or the decompression of Soyuz 11.
Apollo 13? We got our astronauts back. Apollo 1? That happened in a ground test and made little impact outside NASA circles.
Challenger exploded in front of our eyes.
Later, we learned that it could have been prevented. Roger Boisjoly, an engineer at Morton Thiokol, the manufacturer of solid rocket boosters, has written a memo predicting a potential "catastrophe of the highest order" involving the boosters' O-rings. This would create a real risk of "losing a flight." He was ignored by both Morton Thiokol and NASA, and seven brave people died.
They wouldn't be the last.
On Feb. 1, 2003, the shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry.
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Once more a technical problem, a problem with external tank foam insulation, management mistakes and poor internal communications combined to lead to the death of seven more astronauts.
NASA's manned spaceflight initiatives were doomed
Some would say, and I can't argue with them, that it was also the end of the Shuttle program and the US manned space program. Today, we still have Americans in orbit on the International Space Station (ISS), but they're hitchhikers on Russian spaceships.
Long before then, NASA's manned spaceflight initiatives were doomed. Even when I worked at NASA in the 1980s, we were making do with hopelessly outdated equipment. One of the tertiary communication links I monitored in 1984 was a Telex line dating back to the 1950s to the Bermuda tracking station.
Why? Because once the space race to the moon was won, America never wanted to spend money on space. NASA's billions only look big when they're taken out of context. NASA's budget makes up a mere 0.5% of the Federal budget.
Today, the future of manned space flight belongs to the private sector. If we ever get beyond Near-Earth Orbit, it will be because of companies such as Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
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When, if, we do, we'll have more deaths. We'll try to get it right, and sometimes we will fail.
The price of exploration is always paid in blood.
Jan. 28, 1986, was one of the worst days of my life. But, if we are ever to leave this island Earth -- and I believe we must to survive as a species -- there will be more such days. The price is high, but worth it.
Editor's note: Steven Vaughan-Nichols wrote this 10 years ago, and we've updated it in honor of the 40th anniversary.
