![]() (In space, where the internal pressure is much lower due to the vacuum outside, the spacecraft could safely be filled with pure oxygen.) NASA also changed all of the fabric in the spacecraft, including the astronauts’ suits, to a burn-resistant beta cloth. In the case of the Apollo 1 fire, that meant redesigning the spacecraft from top to bottom to avoid the kind of errant spark that set off the blaze, as well as replacing the cockpit’s pure-oxygen atmosphere-which burns like gasoline-with an oxygen-nitrogen mix when the spacecraft was at high internal pressure on the ground. It has searched for the cause of the problem and fixed it. It was an echo of the understated announcement 17 years ago, when the shuttle Challenger consumed itself in an awful fireball, and the stunned NASA narrator was left to declare, ‘Obviously a major malfunction.’”īut NASA has done other things too when faced with tragedy. As I reported in a piece that accompanied Nancy’s: “‘A space-shuttle contingency has been declared,’ the voice of Mission Control intoned in the arid argot of the space agency. NASA reacted as NASA does in such circumstances, first with a certain minimalism and stoicism. “Tough day, tough day,” was all Bush could mutter to himself as he prepared to place the call. Their dedication was an inspiration to each of us.” “They made the ultimate sacrifice,” he said, “giving their lives for their country and mankind. Seventeen years later, on January 28, 2003, astronaut Rick Husband, commander of the shuttle Columbia, which was then in orbit, marked the anniversaries. The pair of solid boosters flew on heedlessly, leaving a gruesome, two fingered fireball in the sky as seven astronauts perished, including New Hampshire school teacher Christa McAuliffe. It was 37 years ago-on January 28, 1986-that the shuttle Challenger exploded during launch due to a faulty seal that caused one of the solid rocket boosters to ignite the external fuel tank. It was 56 years ago last week-January 27, 1967-that astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives in a launch pad fire inside their Apollo 1 spacecraft as they were running a dress rehearsal for countdown. Credit - Getty 2003 Getty Imageįolks around NASA don’t much care for this time of year. NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 1, 2003: A television frame grab shows the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia minutes before a scheduled landing. ![]() Rock singer Harry Styles (One Direction) is 26.Space Shuttle Columbia Breaks Up In Flight Actress and mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey is 33. Rock singer-musician Andrew VanWyngarden is 37. Rock musician Patrick Wilson (Weezer) is 51. Country musician Dwayne Dupuy (Ricochet) is 55. ![]() Actor-writer-producer Bill Mumy (MOO’-mee) is 66. Blues singer-musician Sonny Landreth is 69. Rock musician Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 70. In 1994, Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, pleaded guilty in Portland, Oregon, to racketeering for his part in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in exchange for a 24-month sentence (he ended up serving six) and a $100,000 fine.Īctor Stuart Whitman is 92.In 1991, 34 people were killed when an arriving USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport.In 1982, “Late Night with David Letterman” premiered on NBC.In 1979, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini received a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.Nixon announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. ![]() In 1968, during the Vietnam War, South Vietnam’s police chief executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head in a scene captured by news photographers.In 1962, the Ken Kesey novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was first published by Viking Press.In 1960, four black college students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they’d been refused service.In 1943, during World War II, one of America’s most highly decorated military units, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up almost exclusively of Japanese-Americans, was authorized.In 1942, during World War II, the Voice of America broadcast its first program to Europe, relaying it through the facilities of the British Broadcasting Corp.In 1896, Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” premiered in Turin, Italy.In 1862, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a poem by Julia Ward Howe, was published in the Atlantic Monthly.(However, since only three of the six justices were present, the court recessed until the next day.) Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York.
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