The Challenger Disaster with Adam Higginbotham

The Damcasters - The Aviation History Podcast

It has been nearly 40 years since the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its 10th flight on January 28, 1986, killing her crew and shocking the world. Author Adam Higginbotham's new book, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, looks at the long chain of events that led to the Challenger disaster and its aftermath, in which a small group of engineers stood up against NASA and their employers.

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00:00 Introduction

02:03 Remembering the Challenger Disaster

08:54 Go Fever

12:50 The Road to the Space Shuttle

15:35 The TFNGs

20:08 Compromises in the Shuttle's Design

28:40 Visit to PASM - SOFIA

31:47 What are Solid Rocket Boosters?

34:00 O-Rings

38:35 The Ambitious Flight Schedule of the Shuttle Program

40:57 The Crew of STS-51-L

43:18 The Teacher in Space - Christa McAuliffe

48:21 Ron McNair and Jean-Michel Jarre

49:56 Judy Resnik

51:32 The Rocket Engineers of Morton Thiokol

01:03:59 Conclusion and Join us on Patreon!

All images NASA unless otherwise stated. All credit to the original image owners. Today Dr Judith Resnik clip is copyright NBC.

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