Engineers at Morton Thiokol had explicitly warned NASA management to scrub the launch due to the cold, but their concerns were ignored.
On January 28, 1986, the broke apart just 73 seconds after liftoff.
Space exploration is a high-stakes endeavor where the margin for error is non-existent. While most missions are triumphs of engineering, history is marked by "accidents" that were often foreseeable results of technical failures or organizational pressure. 1. The Challenger Disaster (1986): The Cold Truth
Engineers at Morton Thiokol had explicitly warned NASA management to scrub the launch due to the cold, but their concerns were ignored.
On January 28, 1986, the broke apart just 73 seconds after liftoff.
Space exploration is a high-stakes endeavor where the margin for error is non-existent. While most missions are triumphs of engineering, history is marked by "accidents" that were often foreseeable results of technical failures or organizational pressure. 1. The Challenger Disaster (1986): The Cold Truth