Space Disasters Read online

  destroyed the space shuttle and killed its seven astronauts.

  cold in Florida on the day of

  On Soyuz 11, a Soviet spacecraft, three cosmonauts died the Challenger launch on

  when a valve failed in 1971. The valve opened at the

  January 28, 1986. Even the

  wrong time. All the air escaped from the spacecraft. The launch pad had icicles

  cosmonauts couldn’t breathe.

  (below). The cold weather

  caused Challenger’s rockets

  HUMAN ERRORS

  }to leak hot gases.

  People design and build

  spacecraft, and people can make

  mistakes. In 1996 scientists fed

  the wrong instructions into the

  computer on board Ariane 5, a

  European rocket. That error

  caused the rocket to tip over after

  takeoff. The rocket cracked and

  exploded.

  Bad decisions are another kind

  of human error. For instance,

  officials at NASA decided to

  launch Challenger on a cold

  morning in 1986. Some NASA

  workers warned that the cold air

  could cause the shuttle’s rockets to

  leak hot gases. But NASA

  launched the shuttle anyway. The

  rockets leaked, and Challenger

  exploded.

  16

  A flame can be seen near the

  } external fuel tank as Challenger

  takes off in 1986. Seconds later,

  the shuttle exploded.

  “We will never forget them,

  “We will never forget them

  nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as the

  nor the last tim

  y

  e we saw them, this morning, as the

  prepared for their journey and wa

  prepared for their journe

  v

  y and wa ed g

  v

  oodbye and

  ed g

  slipped the surly bonds of Earth

  to touch the fa

  to tou

  ce of God.

  —U.S. president Ronald Reagan, quoting from a poem by John Gille ”

  —U.S. president Ronald Reagan, quoting from a poem by John Gillespie Magee Jr.

  while honoring the Challenger

  Challenge astronauts who died during takeoff in 1986

  SPACE JUNK

  Space junk is another ingredient for disaster. Junk in space? You might think that space is empty. But it’s not. Thousands of human-made objects orbit Earth in space.

  Space junk includes hundreds of old artificial (human-made) satellites.

  Artificial satellites are spacecraft that hold electronic equipment. Some satellites pass along signals used for television, telephones, and the Internet.

  Others hold cameras that help scientists study and predict the weather.

  People started sending satellites into space in the 1950s. But when the satellites get old or break down, people don’t bring them back to Earth.

  Instead, they leave the satellites in orbit.

  A tracking device called radar allows space workers to locate old satellites. The workers can then make sure that spacecraft steer around the satellites. More dangerous, however, are smaller pieces of space junk.

  These objects include paint chips from old spacecraft and small pieces of metal from old satellites. Billions of these small pieces also orbit Earth.

  TINY DANGERS

  Even a bit of metal as small as a pencil eraser could cause a disaster. How?

  Space junk orbits Earth very fast. Some of it flies at 6 miles (10 km) per second. At that speed, a tiny bit of metal is like a bullet. It could crack a window. It could poke a hole in the craft. Then air

  would escape, and people inside the spacecraft

  might die. If a piece of metal punctured a fuel

  tank, the tank could explode. The explosion would

  blow the spacecraft to pieces.

  So far, space junk hasn’t caused a space

  disaster. But in 2006, the space shuttle Atlantis hit a meteoroid. Meteoroids are small pieces of rock

  }

  that zoom through space. The meteoroid that hit

  This hole on the space shuttle

  Atlantis left a 0.1-inch (2.5-millimeter) hole in the

  Atlantis is from a small meteoroid

  spacecraft. Luckily, the hole did not cause serious

  hitting the shuttle in space in 2006.

  damage to the shuttle.

  18

  This satellite image from NASA shows all the

  space junk orbiting Earth. The pieces are much,

  }

  much smaller than they appear in this image.

  “Hatch not...sealed?

  “Hatch not...

  What’

  W

  s happening?

  hat’

  What’

  W

  s g

  hat’

  oing on?

  s g

  —Soyuz 11

  ”

  —Soyuz 11 cosmonaut Vladislav V

  cosmonaut Vladisla

  o

  v V lkov

  o

  } A Soviet Soyuz

  spacecraft ready

  to launch.

  Everything seemed to be going wrong The cosmonauts climbed into the for Soyuz 11, a Soviet spacecraft. The

  space station. They planned to stay

  problems began before the launch. One

  for thirty days. However, the

  of the cosmonauts scheduled to fly the

  problems continued.

  spacecraft got sick. Officials worried that

  The cosmonauts planned to use a

  he might have infected his crewmates.

  large telescope to study objects in

  So a substitute crew took over. The new

  space. But the cover on the telescope

  cosmonauts were Georgy Dobrovolsky,

  got stuck. The cosmonauts could not

  Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev.

  get it off. They could not do their study.

  Soyuz carried the cosmonauts into

  Then a small fire broke out on the

  space on June 6, 1971. In space,

  space station. After twenty-four days,

  Soyuz docked (connected) with the

  Soviet space officials decided to bring

  Soviet Union’s Salyut space station.

  the cosmonauts home early. The crew

  20

  got back into their Soyuz spacecraft.

  Before the craft disconnected from

  Salyut, however, a warning light

  flashed on. The Soyuz hatch had not

  closed properly. “Hatch

  not . . . sealed?” said Vladislav Volkov to mission control over the radio.

  “What’s happening? What’s going on?”

  “Don’t panic,” mission control

  answered. “Open the hatch, and move

  }

  the wheel to the left to open. Close

  (Left to right) Cosmonauts Georgy

  the hatch, and then move the wheel to

  Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor

  the right six turns with full force.”

  Patsayev pose in the cabin of Soyuz 11.

  The instructions worked. The hatch

  closed properly. Soyuz disconnected

  parachute slowed the craft down. The

  from Salyut and headed back to Earth.

  space capsule made a gentle landing

  As Soyuz commander Georgy

  on June 30. When space workers

  Dobrovolsky prepared the craft for

  arrived at the touchdown, they

  landing, he radioed mission control,

  breathed a sigh of
relief. The Soyuz

  “Landing sequence proceeding

  looked perfectly normal.

  excellent, all OK, crew is excellent.”

  When workers opened the hatch,

  Seconds later, however, the crew

  however, they found that all three

  heard a hissing sound. It sounded like

  cosmonauts were dead. Something else

  air escaping from a tire. They thought

  had gone wrong on this jinxed mission.

  the hatch had come unsealed. But the

  When the spacecraft reached 2.5 miles

  hatch was fine. The crew searched

  (4 km) above Earth, a valve was

  frantically for a leak. To hear better,

  supposed to open to let in fresh air.

  they turned off their radios. Mission

  However, the valve opened earlier,

  control waited to hear from the crew.

  when the craft was still in space. When

  But with the radios off, mission control

  the valve opened, all the air rushed out

  heard only silence. Mission control

  of the spacecraft. The cosmonauts

  thought that Soyuz’s radios had broken.

  weren’t wearing space suits, which

  Soyuz approached Earth normally.

  would have given them backup air

  As it neared the ground, a parachute

  supplies. The three men suffocated

  attached to the spacecraft opened. The

  (died from lack of air).

  21

  A LAYER OF AIR SITS BETWEEN EARTH AND SPACE. THIS LAYER IS CALLED

  THE ATMOSPHERE. IT CONTAINS GASES SUCH AS OXYGEN. THE ATMOSPHERE

  IS THICKEST—CONTAINS THE MOST GASES—

  AT GROUND LEVEL. THE HIGHER YOU GO

  ABOVE THE GROUND, THE THINNER THE AIR

  BECOMES. EVENTUALLY, ABOUT 62 MILES

  (100 KM) ABOVE THE GROUND, THE AIR

  DISAPPEARS AND SPACE BEGINS.

  Spacecraft are designed to take off from

  Earth, fly through the atmosphere, and then fly

  through space. Some spacecraft, such as space

  shuttles, are also designed to return to Earth,

  passing back through the atmosphere to land

  on the ground. Space disasters can happen

  during any part of this process: on the ground,

  in the atmosphere, or in space.

  Super Slurper

  DISASTROUS UPS

  During launch, a space

  Some of the worst space disasters have

  shuttle’s main engines slurp

  occurred during launch. During launch, a

  up fuel quickly. Imagine a

  spacecraft must work at full power to reach

  backyard swimming pool

  space. As it zooms through the atmosphere,

  filled with rocket fuel. During

  its mechanical parts are under great stress. If a

  launch, the shuttle’s engines

  mechanical problem occurs during launch,

  would drain the pool in about

  astronauts and space workers have little time

  twenty-five seconds.

  to solve it. Before they find the problem and

  22

  fix it, the craft could come crashing down to the ground.

  Rockets are engines that propel spacecraft into space. Workers load rockets with fuel during launch. A full load of rocket fuel makes a spacecraft very heavy. The rockets must work perfectly to lift all that weight. Even a small problem with the rockets can cause a crash during launch.

  DANGEROUS DOWNS

  The trip back home is another

  danger zone. Spacecraft reenter

  Earth’s atmosphere at about

  17,000 miles (27,000 km) per

  hour. At that speed, friction

  against the spacecraft heats it up.

  The sides of the spacecraft glow

  red hot. Temperatures reach

  nearly 3,000°F (1,649°C).

  Normally, insulation protects

  }

  spacecraft from the heat. But if

  The space shuttle Columbia touches

  the insulation has cracks or holes, as

  down in May 1998. The shuttle’s

  Columbia’s did, the vehicle will burn up.

  parachute helps slow it down.

  GROUND ZERO

  Even on the ground, spacecraft are not safe from disasters. The Apollo 1

  astronauts died when fire broke out in their spacecraft during a practice session on the ground.

  Space workers face danger on the ground too. For instance, in 1964

  three workers were putting together a satellite inside a building in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite’s engine started by accident. Hot gases filled the room and burned the workers to death. In 2003 the nation of Brazil prepared to launch satellites into space. But a few days before the launch, the rocket for carrying the satellites exploded on the ground. The explosion killed twenty-one space workers and scientists.

  23

  Danger Zones

  Space disasters can happen anywhere spacecraft travel—

  on Earth, in orbit around Earth, near the International Space Station or Hubble Space Telescope, or near

  satellites, and even farther out in space.

  Hubble Space

  Telescope

  International

  Space Station

  24

  MOON

  Weather and

  Communications

  Satellites

  SPACE

  SPACE JUNK

  ATMOSPHERE

  EARTH

  25

  “We felt the grief

  “Wand shock over this

  and shock ov

  side of the world too

  [in Dublin, Ireland].

  I think I was too

  stunned to cry. ”

  —Noel O’Neill, who watched the

  Challenger disaster on television

  January 28, 1986, was an unusual

  McAuliffe taught social studies at

  day for many American

  Concord High School in New

  schoolchildren. On that day, millions

  Hampshire. All twelve hundred

  of children got to watch TV in school.

  students from her school gathered in

  They gathered around TV sets to

  the auditorium to watch their teacher

  watch the launch of the space shuttle

  fly into space. McAuliffe’s husband

  Challenger. Every shuttle launch is

  and two children watched the launch

  exciting. But this launch was special.

  at the Kennedy Space Center in

  One of Challenger’ s seven astronauts

  Florida. Her parents were there too.

  was a schoolteacher. Her name was

  Everyone cheered at 11:38 A.M.

  Christa McAuliffe. She was going to

  when Challenger rose into the air. At

  be the world’s first teacher in space.

  first, the launch seemed fine.

  26

  Challenger flew normally. The

  shuttle rose higher and higher

  into the bright blue sky.

  About seventy-three seconds

  after launch, Challenger was

  48,000 feet (14,630 m) above

  the ground. Then mission control

  got a radio message from

  Challenger. “Uh-oh!” said

  astronaut Michael Smith. That

  }

  was the last message from Challenger.

  Christa McAuliffe and other astronauts

  People watching on TV and at the

  train in a zero-gravity aircraft for their

  Kennedy Space Center could not

/>   shuttle mission in 1986.

  believe their eyes. As they watched,

  Challenger exploded. Pieces of the

  a high school student in Conway,

  spacecraft fell into the Atlantic Ocean.

  South Carolina, about forty-five

  Ryan Loskarn was watching the

  minutes from the home of Challenger

  launch with his elementary schoolmates.

  astronaut Ronald McNair. “When I saw

  “I remember cheering, watching the

  that explosion I felt like someone

  split screen [TV] show of lift-off and

  really close to me had just died right

  Christa’s class observing the launch,”

  before my eyes,” Lipscomb said. “Ron

  Loskarn said. “Then I remember white

  was a hero to a lot of us.”

  smoke. A teacher screamed and

  All seven astronauts died in the

  students began to cry.”

  disaster. Some may have died during

  “I’ll never forget that day as long

  the explosion. The rest certainly died

  as I live,” said Alisa Lipscomb. She was when the shuttle’s crew compartment

  slammed into the Atlantic Ocean. It

  took recovery workers several weeks

  of searching the Atlantic to find the

  bodies.

  Students at Framingham High School

  } in Massachusetts watch as Challenger

  explodes after takeoff on January 28,

  1986. Christa McAuliffe graduated

  from Framingham High School.

  27

  WHEN DISASTER STRIKES IN SPACE,

  PEOPLE ASK THE SAME QUESTIONS THEY

  ASK ABOUT DISASTERS ON EARTH.

  HOW SERIOUS WAS THE DISASTER?

  HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE KILLED?

  HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE HURT?

  }

  As with other disasters, measuring

  The crew of the 1986 space shuttle Challenger

  space disasters involves counting

  injuries and deaths. The Challenger

  at last—

  disaster and the Columbia disaster

  Another Teacher in space

  each killed seven astronauts. The

  Apollo 1 and the Soyuz 11 disasters

  In 2007 a teacher finally made it into

  each killed three astronauts.

  space. The teacher, Barbara Morgan, had

  The loss of human life is always

  been Christa McAuliffe’s backup in

  sad, especially for the friends and