Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Challenger Explosion (January 28, 1986): Is NASA Doomed?

On January 28, 1986 I was leaving St. Ambrose University where I had just taught a composition class when I heard the news that the Challenger had exploded 73 seconds into its launch, killing the "teacher in space," Christa McAuliffe. I was supposed to have interviewed Ms. McAuliff after her return for Performance Learning Systems, Inc. a New Jersey-based teacher-training firm for whom I worked as an educational writer at the time. I had talked to Christa's husband at their Concord, New Hampshire home the day before.

Christa had beaten out 11,000 other teacher applicants from around the nation to have the honor of being the first civilian in space. She was to teach two science-related lessons on the Challenger mission. The shuttle blew up with horrified teachers and students around the globe watching "live" on television.

THE CHALLENGER EXPLOSION: JANUARY 28, 1986

Although brave words were spoken by then-President Reagan that greater accomplishments in space would serve as a lasting memorial to the 7 dead astronauts, author Joan Johnson-Freese of the Naval War College (Newport, R.I.), who has devoted considerable time to the topic in several books, says, "There have been great plans that have been barely met, if at all." When 7 brave astronauts died because faulty O-rings allowed hot gases and flames to seep out, NASA may have unwittingly been experiencing "the beginning of the end."

POST CHALLENGER DISASTER SPACE INITIATIVES

Initially, Congress poured money into NASA, to fund its recovery. The budget escalated from $15.5 billion in 2010 dollar in 1986 to nearly $21 billion the year after the accident. The next 5 years saw increases in budgeting for NASA. Although President Obama on April 15, 2010 pledged $6 billion to NASA over the next 5 years and 2,500 new jobs, as well as saying that a $40 million initiative for the space program must reach his desk by August, 2010, it seems a foregone conclusion during the tough economic times that the space program of today can kiss its high-flying salad days good-bye.

CAPE CANAVERAL TODAY

I visited the Kennedy Space Center and launch areas on Merritt Island (Titusville, FL) five days ago on January 21, 2011 and had lunch with an astronaut (John Fabian) and toured the facility and launch sites in a comprehensive 1 hour and 45 minute bus tour. The visit was informative, eye opening, and a little bit sad.

JOHN FABIAN, ASTRONAUT, SPEAKS

The astronaut I spoke with, John Fabian, is now retired and a private citizen. He was selected for the space program in 1978. He holds a mechanical engineering degree, a degree in aerospace engineering and a PhD in aeronautics. He flew with Sally Ride, completed 90 combat missions as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, and blasted off with the Challenger in 1983 and with Discovery in 1985. John Fabian's view of NASA's future was this: "NASA gets one-half of 1% of the federal budget today. I don't think we can do the job for less than 1%. Any nation that doesn't have 1% to invest in its future might not have one."

When I asked what had become of the $40 million initiative announced last April by Obama, to develop plans for growth, a plan that the president said was to be delivered to his desk by August 15, 2010, Fabian dodged the question with a joke. "I don't get to see the President's desk," he laughed.

NASA NOW

"What is NASA doing now?" I asked. After June of this year, United States astronauts will have to be flown to the International Space Station by Russian Soyuz rockets after the shuttle is retired, following George W. Bush's decision to mothball the program.

Discovery is due to launch February 24, 2011. If it is like the last launch, when 17,500 spectators showed up and 200 extra buses had to be rented to accommodate the influx of visitors, it will be one of our nation's last hurrahs in space.

Following the February 24 launch of Discovery, Endeavor will launch on April 19, 2011 for the space station. The final flight is set for June 28, 2011 when the shuttle Atlantis takes supplies to the space station and returns a faulty pump. NASA does not yet have the funding of a couple hundred million dollars that will be needed to pay for that mission.

The April mission was to have been commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly, whose wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D, AZ) was the recent target of an assassination attempt. His status for the mission is unclear.

NASA of the FUTURE

After June 28, 2011 Soyuz will lift 3 United States astronauts in 2011, 6 in 2012, and 6 more in 2013. The very thought of proud American space explorers (Fabian served 14 years as Co-President of the Association of Space Explorers) having to depend on our former arch-enemies, the Russians, to transport our astronauts into space is a bitter pill for the proud men and women of NASA. It's almost unthinkable for anyone of my generation, when John F. Kennedy announced the formation of NASA after Russia launched Sputnik in 1957. We used to compete with the Russians, toe-to-toe. It was a bitter rivalry during "the Cold War." We landed men on the moon first on July 20, 1969. Now we will have to depend on Russia to launch U.S. astronauts.

CELEBRATING YURI GAGARIN's FLIGHT, 50 YEARS LATER

Russia beat the United States in launching the first man in space, orbiting Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. NASA is reduced now to celebrating Russian achievements such as Gagarin's flight, a 50th anniversary "celebration" that surely must elicit mixed emotions from the proud men and women of NASA, "the best of the best."

So, what happened? Where did things go wrong? Is NASA a lost cause or will it come roaring back ? And, since it takes 5 to 7 years to even build a rocket/shuttle, is this dismantling of the shuttle program the end? Does the program end not with a bang, but with a whimper?

WHY NASA IS IN A WORLD OF HURT

In 2003, the Columbia disintegrated just a few moments before it was to have landed in Florida. Foam insulation peeled off the 15-story fuel tank on launch and gouged a massive hole in the shuttle's wing. Large chunks of foam had fallen off the fuel tanks before, but engineers never questioned the safety implications.

Says NASA's top safety official (an astronaut at the time of the Challenger accident), "It's so human to become complacent. We had let our guard down." Adds former astronaut Rick Hauck, commander of the first 2 shuttle missions after Challenger, "People retire and we lose some of the corporate memory. We become less sensitive to issues we were more sensitive to in proximity to the failures." (USA Today, January 26, 2011, "How Challenger Brought NASA Down to Earth" by Traci Watson, www.usatoday.com).

Former astronaut Jay Apt, who is now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University University in Pittsburgh said in a "USA Today" article entitled "U.S. Human Spaceflight and the Road Ahead" (January 26, 2011): "President Bush might have made a different decision on whether to keep the shuttle flying" if not for the second catastrophe. So, did NASA commit financial suicide by not being attentive enough to safety issues?

Howard McCurdy, a specialist in space policy at American University in Washington, D.C., says, "The business model collapsed and it wasn't just the business model for shuttle, it was the business model for shuttle, station, Mars, the moon -- It was like a corporation going down." He added, "When the shuttle turned out to be not what we thought it was, all those downstream visions began to crumble."

EARLY SPACE SHUTTLE EXPECTATIONS

The shuttle was supposed to make money for the U.S., not cost the U.S. millions of dollars. It was to function as a sturdy space barge that routeinly would haul satellites into space, flying several dozen missions a year. Of course, it would be perfectly safe. There would be little to no danger of loss of human life on manned shuttle missions. Those assumptions, says political scientist Roger Handberg of the University of Central Florida, were "pure fantasy." (USA Today, January 26, 2011 cover story).

Flying anything anywhere is dangerous. An astronaut has to be launched at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. The shuttle traveled 300 miles a minute, said Fabian, or 5 miles a second. It takes roughly 7 seconds to travel from Orlando to Cape Canaveral, he said. Fabian said it costs $50 million to ride on the shuttle (the nephew of the King of Saudi, Arabia went up). It's pretty clear that the United States is no longer flush with extra cash. Fabian added, "Anyone who tells you that launch isn't scary is lying," and common sense tells us that no form of flight is completely safe.

ASTRONAUT PAYMENT

When asked how much he made as an astronaut, Fabian answered that there was no special reimbursement for astronauts. As an Air Force Colonel, he got regular grade pay and no extra pay for flying -- (although, as a military pilot, he got an extra stipend of $250 a month.) His first travel voucher for his first space flight was for $2.36. There were no meals for the trip (NASA provides those); there were no housing costs (you sleep in the rocket and Fabian used to tie his toe to the wall and "float" to sleep), there was no mileage, no hotels. So, what was the $2.36 for? "Incidentals," he responds, with a laugh, adding that he was thinking of having the check framed.

When Fabian flew, the two missions ran smoothly, with the exception of a tiny fleck of paint that hit the windshield, leaving a pockmark the size of a lima bean. Commander Bob Flicken decided the men in the air wouldn't mention it to the men on the ground, as it would just cause the Johnson Space Center crew in Texas, who take over after a launch at Cape Canaveral, a great deal of grief. "They (NASA) scolded him when the crew landed," reminisced Fabian.

On May 25, 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, "It will not be one man going to the moon if we make this judgment affirmatively. It will be an entire nation." The last man to walk on the moon, Gene Cernan, made the trip 30 years ago. It has been 40 years since John Glenn, one of the Mercury astronauts, made his "one small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind" trip.

During the tour of the launch pad facilities, (about which I'll write more about), we saw a giant crane dismantling Launch Pad "B."

For NASA and the space program, that may say it all.