Challenger explodes; teacher, 6 others die
By Howard Benedict
The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ─ A catastrophic explosion blew apart the space shuttle Challenger 74 seconds after liftoff yesterday, sending schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe and six NASA astronauts to a fiery death in the sky eight miles out from Kennedy Space Center.
"We mourn seven heroes," President Reagan said
The accident defied quick explanation, though a slow-motion replay seemed to show a flame or other abnormality on one of two peel-away rocket boosters, followed by the detonation of the shuttle's huge external fuel tank. The tank-turned-fireball destroyed Challenger high above the Atlantic Ocean while crew families and NASA officials watched in despair from the Cape.
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Other observers noted that the boosters continued to fly crazily through the sky after the explosion, indicating that the problem might have originated in the giant tank itself.
"We will not speculate as to the specific cause of the explosion based on that footage," said Jesse Moore, NASA's top shuttle administrator. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials are organizing an investigating board, and Moore said it will take a "careful review" of all data "before we can reach any conclusions."
Never before in 56 manned space missions had Americans died in flight. John Glenn, a former astronaut, recalled that three astronauts died in a launch-pad training accident 19 years ago and said the history of pioneers is often one "of triumph and tragedy."
The explosion followed an apparently flawless launch, delayed two hours as officials analyzed the danger from icicles that formed in the frosty Florida morning along the shuttle's new launch pad.
"There were no signs of abnormalities on the screens" as flight controllers monitored Challenger's liftoff and ascent, a source said. The source, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the blast occurred "unexpectedly and with absolutely no warning."
"We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight director confirms that," NASA's Stave Nesbitt said.
NASA said its computers showed that all communications with the shuttle broke off 74 seconds after launch, marking that as the moment of the explosion.
Mission Control said there had been no indication of any problem with the three shuttle engines, its twin solid boosters or any other system. The shuttle just suddenly blew apart 10 miles high and eight miles downrange of Cape Canaveral, Mission Control said. Ninety minutes after the accident, controllers were still at their consoles, solemnly examining flight data.
