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Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 5

Publication:
Florida Todayi
Location:
Cocoa, Florida
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Page:
5
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

5A THE CHALLENGER COMMISSION: REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT April 25: Truly releases a statement saying pathologists have yet to determine the cause or time of death of the Challenger crew members. April 29: The astronauts' remains are transferred from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for burial preparations. By Todd Halvorson and Colleen Moore FLORIDA TODAY r- The following is a chronology of events following the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28: FLORIDA TODAY, Tuesday, June 10, 1986 fM.ii,ji. aumi i iwf fm mmj 1 J.

--J is i vi i I I i v- January May Jan. 29: NASA's efforts to recover debris from the Challenger begin. Scattered reports of wreckage washing up on Space Coast shores are reported from Cape Canaveral to the south beaches. Theories on the cause of the Shuttle explosion begin to circulate. Aerospace experts begin to question the possibility a faulty solid rocket booster triggered the explosion.

Speculation about the unusually cold weather causing a failure surfaces. Jan. 30: NASA releases a sequence of photographs detailing the progression of a small plume of flame into the giant fireball which destroyed the Orbiter. Jan. 31: President Reagan, with tears in his eyes, bids farewell to the seven Challenger crew members at a memorial service in Houston.

"Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short," he tells 10,000 people gathered at the Johnson Space Center. "But we must pick up ourselves again and press on despite the pain." 1 i v4 i 1 V- 1 (ji 1 I Ail 3h imym February FLORIDA TODAY AP Feb. 1: The first official hint that a failure in Challenger's right solid rocket booster triggered the disaster surfaces as NASA releases a film showing a bright plume of flame shooting from between two lower segments of the SRB about 15 seconds before the craft exploded. During a somber, tearful memorial service, 4,000 KSC workers pay homage to Challenger's fallen astronauts. Feb.

3: Reagan appoints an independent commission to study the Challenger disaster. The president calls on former Secretary of State William Rogers to head the commission. Feb. 4: Plans to build an astronaut memorial at KSC to honor astronauts who died in their quest for the final frontier are announced. Feb.

6: The presidential commission has its first meeting in Washington, D.C., and is told by NASA officials that manufacturers of the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters Morton Thiokol expressed concerns about freezing temperatures prior to the spaceplane's ill-fated launch. After discussion with Shuttle engineers, Morton Thiokol officials recommend launching the Orbiter. Feb. 8: NASA officials say six "O-ring" seals inspected on previously used solid rocket boosters had shown signs of damage after they were recovered from five successful Shuttle flights. Two of the damaged seals were found following the Jan.

24, 1985, flight of the Orbiter Discovery, a mission which was delayed a day when temperatures dropped into the teens. Feb. 9: Rogers asks NASA to produce all SAYING GOODBYE: A casket carrying the remains of Cemetery. The May 3 tribute was similar to ceremonies held Challenger pilot Capt. Michael Smith was escorted by a by family and friends of the other six astronauts who died with Navy honor guard to its final resting spot in Arlington National Smith in the Shuttle explosion Jan.

28. Disaster, debate, decision: The aftermath of Challenger May 1: Christa McAuliffe's remains are buried in a private ceremony in her hometown of Concord, N.H. May 2: Unwilling to wait any longer for Reagan's endorsement, Nelson agrees to co-sponsor a bill authorizing $2.8 billion to replace the Challenger. May 3: A Delta rocket, carrying a critical weather satellite, is destroyed 91 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It is the first launch from the Space Coast since the Challenger disaster.

Challenger pilot Michael Smith is buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. The remains of astronaut Gregory Jarvis of Hermosa Beach, are sprinkled over the Pacific Ocean by his widow, Marcia, in a private ceremony. May 4: An eight-member panel is appointed to investigate the unexplained engine shutdown of the Delta rocket. May 5: A closed ceremony is held at KSC to celebrate the 25th anniversary of America's first manned space launch, Alan Shep-ard's sojourn into space aboard Freedom 7. May 6: The Senate confirms James Fletcher, 66, as NASA's chief administrator.

May 8: Senators Donald Riegle, Albert Gore, and Ernest Hollings, deliver a broad attack on NASA, demanding to know how much the administration wants to spend to return to space, alleging "a devastating decay" in quality control, and questioning a space agency policy regarding booster building that dates back three decades. Truly reverses previous predictions that Shuttles could fly as early as next February, and states the earliest the Shuttle can resume flights is July 1987. May 9: Apparently bowing to a demand by the presidential Challenger commission, NASA announces it will ask independent experts to oversee the redesign of the solid rocket booster joint thought to have caused the Challenger explosion. Martin Marietta lays off 24 employees at KSC because of the slowdown in programs after the Shuttle disaster. Many will transfer within the company, an official says.

NASA announces Lawrence Mulloy, the NASA manager who challenged engineers to justify their recommendation against launching the Orbiter, has been assigned to the newly created position of assistant director of Marshall's science and engineering directorate. A spokesman describes the assignment as a "lateral move," not a demotion. May 10: Transcripts of a secret commission hearing reveal Morton Thiokol apparently transferred Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly from key booster posts after they testified in front of the commission. Both feel comments by Marshall officials put pressure on the company to punish them. The revelation "shocks" chairman Rogers and other commissioners.

NASA denies the charge, as does Morton Thiokol, but decides to investigate. May 12: Critical engine components of the Delta rocket are recovered in 160 feet of water 30 miles east of KSC. The wreckage includes the rocket's 'main engine, the engine's electrical control box and the "boat tail" section encasing the engine and its components. Fletcher is sworn in as NASA administrator. He vows "to fix what went wrong." May 13: Published reports indicate that nearly six months before the Challenger disaster, NASA was given results of a test showing that safety seals in the Shuttle's booster rockets could fail at temperatures of 50 degrees or below.

NASA's streak of bad luck is broken when two suborbital rockets are successfully launched from Virginia. The rockets disperse colorful artificial clouds helping confirm a theory about the formation of the solar system. May 14: NASA unveils a design plan for an $8 billion space station that Reagan wants in orbit by 1994. May 17: Astronaut Ron McNair is buried in Lake City, C. Among the 200 mourners are eight of McNair's fellow astronauts and actress Cicely Tyson.

May 19: Challenger Commander Francis "Dick" Scobee is buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on the day that would have been his 47th birthday NASA security officials confiscate Challenger wreckage that apparently was kept as souvenirs by Navy sailors aboard the USS Opportune, a salvage vessel. May 25: Morton Thiokol engineers complain NASA is pressuring them to quickly complete a redesign of the solid rocket boosters. The July 1987 deadline may jeopardize safety considerations, they say NASA officials, at a hearing before the presidential commission at KSC, say they are certain a fault in Challenger's right solid rocket booster was the primary cause of the landing Space Shuttles at KSC's three-mile runway. Citing the Space Coast's unpredictable weather, the astronauts say they prefer to land on the larger dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. April 7: Seven leading aerospace firms are awarded $90.5 million in contracts for preliminary design work on an "Orient Express" spaceplane that would take off like a jet, fly into orbit and deliver payloads to space, and return to Earth by landing on a conventional runway.

April 8: James Thompson, head of the II '4 Jan. 28 catastrophe. March 8: NASA Chief Astronaut John Young says in an internal memo that the space agency had flight safety concerns, but they took a back seat to mission launch pressures for more than a year. He charged NASA with risking lives and internal documents concerning problems with the Shuttle's solid rocket booster seals after news reports indicated that damage to SRB seals was detected after 12 of 24 previous flights. One of those 12 flights was the Shuttle Columbia's Jan-ua ru 1 98fi mission.

I' LJ degrees a few hours before launch. Feb. 19: Three NASA officials involved in the decision to launch the Space Shuttle Challenger tell commissioners they were not told that Morton Thiokol booster rocket engineers had strongly urged a delay in launching Challenger because of concerns about freezing launch-day temperatures. U.S. Rep.

Edward Markey, charges that safety considerations surrounding NASA's nuclear-fueled Galileo and Ulysses Space Shuttle cargoes had taken a back seat to mission scheduling pressure. The missions had been scheduled for mid-May. Feb. 20: Former astronaut Richard Truly is named chief of NASA's Shuttle program and he vows to discover the cause of the Challenger tragedy. He replaces Jesse Moore, who continues with NASA as head of the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Feb. 24: The first official sign of a long delay in the Shuttle program following the Challenger disaster surfaces as NASA officials say Orbiters would be grounded for up to a year unless national security required a spy satellite to be launched. Feb. 25: Morton Thiokol engineers tell commissioners they opposed the launch but their warnings about cold launch day temperatures were unheeded by company managers and NASA. It is revealed that former KSC launch manager Rocco Petrone, now president of Orbiters under condi- YOUNG tions "potentially as catastrophic" as the NASA task force investigating the Challenger disaster, says the space agency "fumbled" by continuing to launch Shuttles while knowing about potentially catastrophic solid rocket booster design problems.

April 9: A federal transDortation safety the space division of Rockwell International, expressed fears about cold launch day temperatures and filed a letter protesting the launch with NASA. NASA administrator James Beggs resigns to allow Reagan to name a new chief for the embattled space tragic Challenger mission. March 11: A tentative schedule for future Shuttle missions beginning in February 1987 is leaked to the press. March 12: The USS Preserver returns to Port Canaveral carrying what appears to be a flag-draped coffin. Crew members wearing "dress blues" and standing at parade rest line the ship's deck, an indication astronaut remains were on board.

March 14: KSC Director Richard Smith raps the presidential commission for "needlessly" damaging the reputation of space agency officials and blames the media for pressuring NASA to launch the Challenger on Jan. 28. March 15: Smith backs off from criticizing the presidential panel, saying it was not his intent to lodge a "frontal attack" against the commission. March 16: A huge piece of Shuttle debris believed to be from Challenger's suspect right solid rocket booster is hauled up from the Atlantic Ocean floor by NASA salvage vessels. March 18: The presidential commission gives NASA an April 18 deadline to submit its preliminary report on the Challenger disaster.

March 21: NASA experts, testifying before the presidential commission, release a riveting film pinpointing the leak of flame from Challenger's right solid rocket booster that triggered the Jan. 28 catastrophe. March 25: Truly announces sweeping changes in the Shuttle program as a result of the Challenger disaster. He outlines a program to reassess NASA management, to redesign the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters and to re-examine hundreds of items capable of destroying an Orbiter. March 26: NASA names a team to oversee the redesign of the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters by manufacturer Morton Thiokol.

James Kingsbury, director of science and engineering at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, is named to head the team. Published reports indicate the remains of six of seven Challenger astronauts have been identified by pathologists. aft. which carried U.S. Rep.

ROGERS Bill Nelson into space. It also is reported NASA had been warned by engineers in July 1985 that problems with the booster's seals could lead to a "catastrophe." Feb. 10: NASA announces its next three Space Shuttle flights scheduled for March 6, May 15 and May 20 are canceled because of the Challenger explosion. Feb. 11: A memo, which says the suspected burn-through in Challenger's right solid rocket booster was "preventable," is disclosed during the presidential commission's second public hearing.

The memo, written Feb. 3 by NASA budget analyst Richard Cook, also says Shuttles had been flying "in an unsafe condition" for more than a year. NASA director of Shuttle propulsion David Winterhalter denies there was any evidence that the spaceplane was unsafe to fly. Feb. 12: Documents detailing problems with eroding seals on the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters are released by NASA, but officials say nearly all proposed solutions to the problem "were deemed not to be feasible." Feb.

13: NASA releases photographs showing an ominous black puff of smoke 1.4 seconds after Challenger's solid rocket boosters were ignited, the first evidence that something was wrong almost at the moment of liftoff. The presidential commission arrives at Kennedy Space Center to conduct closed-door meetings with NASA officials. Commission members also tour the space center's Vehicle Assembly Building, the solid rocket motor processing facilities, Launch Complex 39B and a hangar where recovered Challenger debris was being stored and analyzed. Feb. 14: A millisecond by millisecond account of Challenger's ill-fated launch is released by the presidential commission.

The chronology indicates the first sign of trouble was a puff of smoke spotted between two lower segments of Challenger's right solid rocket booster just after the Shuttle's two SRB's were ignited. Commission member Richard Feynman says a failure in the right booster most likely caused the disaster. Feb. 15: Rogers says NASA's decision to launch Challenger on Jan. 28 "may have been flawed." He also asks that NASA officials who were involved in the decision to launch the Ill-fated mission be removed from the space agency's Internal task force that was appointed to investigate the disaster.

Feb. 18: NASA officials tell a Senate subcommittee that senior space agency officials responsible for the decision to launch Challenger never were told temperatures on the siface of the Shuttle's right solid rocket booster had plunged to below 10 agency. BEGGS Feb. 26: Mid-level NASA managers, at a hearing before the presidential commission, insist they were unaware of fears expressed by Morton Thiokol engineers the night before the launch. Feb.

28: NASA announces the impending layoff of 1,100 KSC workers as a result of the Challenger tragedy and completion of work at Launch Complex 39B at the space center. June expert says Challeng- THOMPSON er's crew cabin emerged from the Jan. 28 explosion relatively intact and started to crumble during its nine-mile plunge to Earth. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Terry Armentrout reports the crew cabin hit the Atlantic Ocean surface at a speed of between 140 and 180 mph. April 14: NASA announces a critical part from Challenger's suspect right solid rocket booster a piece of wreckage from the area where a fatal fuel leak occurred has been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.

Divers from the USS Preserver, returning to their homeport in Virginia Beach, say Challenger's crew compartment had been reduced to rubble and the remains of the seven astronauts were not recognizable when they were retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean floor. April 15: Truly and NASA acting administrator William Graham visit KSC to tour facilities where Challenger debris is being stored and review a NASA task force report on the accident. April 17: The family of Challenger astronaut Gregory Jarvis are told by NASA that the remains of the 41-year-old payload specialist have been identified. April 18: A Titan 34D rocket carrying what was believed to be a "Big Bird" spy satellite explodes five seconds after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The second round of KSC staff reductions in the wake of the Challenger disaster hit home as 368 space center workers receive pink slips.

The NASA task force investigating the Shuttle tragedy turns its preliminary report over to the presidential commission. April 19: NASA announces that remains of each of the Challenger astronauts have been recovered and efforts to recover the Shuttle's crew cabin from the Atlantic Ocean floor have been completed. April 21: Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine reports it is "likely" the Challenger crew members were "conscious and aware of the crisis" as their cabin tumbled toward the ocean. The magazine based its statements on information from unidentified NASA engineers. April 23: NASA releases a series of computer-enhanced photographs showing Challenger's intact crew cabi hurtling through the sky seconds after the explosion.

June 1: A Navy spokeswoman says no formal charges are expected against sailors March A aboard the USS Opportune. June 2: Morton Thiokol announces Je-rald Mason, a senior vice president in charge of the teleconference that quelled the engineers' objections, will retire. McDonald is promoted to head the booster redesign effort and Boisioly is given a April March 3: NASA acknowledges the Shuttle program will be grounded for 12 to 18 months as a result of the Challenger disaster. Four of NASA's top astronauts hold a press conference and express anger because the astronaut corps was unaware of concerns with the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters. March 4: NASA and Department of Energy officials confirm a Shuttle with a nuclear-fueled payload could dust the KSC area with deadly plutonium if an explosion were to occur at liftoff.

Two Shuttle flights carrying plutonium-powered satellites had been scheduled for launch at KSC in May. March 5: The presidential commission begins two days of meetings at KSC. March 6: Reagan nominates James Fletcher to replace Beggs as chief of NASA. March 7: Navy divers discover Challenger's crew cabin and astronaut remains in 100 feet of water about 17 to 18 miles noryieast of Cape Canaveral. key role in the process.

McDONALD Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka, the nation's first Asian-American space traveler, is buried in Hawaii. June 4: Marshall director William Lucas announces his retirement. June 6: Members of the House Science and Technology Committee, examine Challenger debris at KSC and discuss the tragedy to gather information for hearings on the accident. (The committee will hold hearings about the Shuttle disaster this week). June 9: The Challenger Commission's repct to the is released the public April 1: The Astronaut's Memorial Foundation receives the go-ahead from NASA officials in Washington to build the national memorial to fallen space travelers at KSC.

April 3: America's top astronauts, testifying before the presidential commission in Washington, recommend an independent safety panel be established to ensure that flight safety concerns are tunneled to all levels of NASA's chain of commaid. The astronauts voice concerns about.

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