Space Shuttle Disasters: From Horror Fire to the Columbia and Challenger Tragedies

NASA has had many victories over the decades, but the losses are a stark reminder of the risks astronauts take on in the name of science.

Since 1961 – when it all started – exactly twenty people have died during space missions, including the fourteen who lost their lives in the Space Shuttle disasters of 1986 and 2003.

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The Space Shuttle Era, consisting of 135 missions with 852 pilots, ran from 1981 to 2011 and helped build the International Space Station and conduct other important science.

With space tourism just around the corner, it can be easy to forget the risks every flier faces on their journey to the stars.

And with the current pace of launch success, some are overlooking the fact that it was always smooth sailing.

Soyuz 1: parachute failure

Aboard Soyuz 1 – the Soviets’ first spacecraft that was hoped to eventually reach the moon – Vladimir Komarov made history as the first person to enter space twice.

It was upon his return to Earth that Komarov encountered problems with the design of his spacecraft and became the first-ever fatality in space travel.

Soyuz 1 would orbit Earth and then rendezvous with Soyuz 2 before the pair adjusted their orbital speeds to test how two spacecraft linked together.

But one of the solar panels on Soyuz 1 was not activated, dramatically limiting power to the spacecraft – the same fatal flaw that plagued the US Peregrine Lunar Lander.

When it became clear that the mission would fail, Komarov began preparing for his return to Earth.

And after struggling to pierce Earth’s atmosphere, Soyuz 1’s parachutes deployed but failed to deploy properly, making it impossible to slow the spacecraft.

Soyuz 1 crashed into Earth on April 24, 1967, killing cosmonaut Komarov.

Apollo 1: gas leak

A gas leak aboard Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967 led to the deaths of Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee – NASA’s first space-related deaths.

Apollo 1 was supposed to be the first piloted Apollo flight, but things went terribly wrong during a pre-launch test when a fire ripped through the command module.

All crew members, including the astronauts, undertook the same procedures as on launch day, which was scheduled for February 21.

Although everyone realized that space pilots would one day die, who would have thought that the first tragedy would take place on the ground?

James E. Webb, NASA Administrator

Three hatches of the capsule were closed and pressurized with pure oxygen, slightly higher than atmospheric pressure.

Within seconds, the heat and pressure caused the command module’s pressure vessel to burst, releasing flames and smoke onto the launch pad.

While the astronauts attempted to open the inner hatch from the inside, the pad crew worked valiantly to loosen the outer two hatches.

But the pressurized cabin made it impossible to open, and by the time the pad crew was successful, the astronauts were asphyxiated by the toxic fumes.

The burns they suffered were likely survivable.

Because the test took place without fuel, it was considered harmless and therefore not assessed by the relevant safety organizations.

NASA administrator James E. Webb said at the time: “We always knew something like this would happen sooner or later, but it will not be allowed to stop the program.

“Although everyone realized that someday space pilots would die, who would have thought that the first tragedy would be on the ground?”

Challenger space shuttle

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For the 25th Space Shuttle mission, seven people once again prepared for another Challenger flight on January 28, 1986.

However, what made this mission special was that one of the crew members was not a trained astronaut by profession, but was instead a teacher, plucked from a school in New Hampshire, USA.

News of the first non-astronaut in space spread like wildfire, drawing millions of starry-eyed viewers on launch day.

I suspect that there was consciousness at that moment on the part of at least the commander and the pilot, because that was the moment of the explosion.

Richard Truly, NASA’s associate administrator for spaceflight in 1986

But all seven astronauts tragically died when the Challenger exploded in midair just 73 seconds into flight.

This included Commander Francis “Dick” Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, Mission Specialists Ronald McNair; Ellison Onizuka and Judith Resnik; cargo specialist Gregory Jarvis; and teacher Christa McAuliffe.

Just before the explosion, Pilot Smith was heard saying “uh-oh” over the intercom in the shuttle’s cabin.

“I suspect there was at least some consciousness on the part of the commander and pilot at that point, because that was the moment of the explosion,” Richard Truly, NASA’s space officer, said at the time.

The explosion occurred after a leak in one of the two Solid Rocket Boosters caused the main liquid fuel tank to catch fire.

As a result, the explosion became “one of the most important events of the 1980s, as billions around the world saw the accident on television and empathized with one of the several crew members killed.” according to NASA.

It took nearly two months to recover the remains of all seven astronauts from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, about 20 miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, where they were launched.

No one knows the exact cause of the crew’s death, whether from water impact or depressurization.

What we do know is that the Challenger crew was conscious for at least ten seconds after the explosion, because at least three emergency breathing packs were activated.

Columbia space shuttle

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Nearly seventeen years ago, on February 1, 2003, the Columbia Space Shuttle was scheduled to return for a seventeen-day science mission.

The team, Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, had conducted numerous microgravity experiments in orbit.

But upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, the Columbia suffered a catastrophic failure due to a rupture that occurred during launch.

During the breach, foam fell from the external tank and hit the reinforced carbon panels on the underside of the left wing.

It meant that hot gases could enter the damaged tile section and melt key structural elements of the wing, resulting in its eventual collapse.

Just 15 minutes before Columbia and its crew of seven were scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center, they were killed.

The crew was aware of their situation for perhaps only a minute before the entire spacecraft tore apart.

It was the 28th flight for Columbia, NASA’s first shuttle to fly into space some twenty years earlier.

Debris flowed across southeastern Texas all the way to southern Louisiana.

Like the Challenger disaster, the Columbia wreck was captured on television.

The following month, key components and the remains of the crew were recovered.

The tragedy of the Columbia Space Shuttle is the subject of a new ‘harrowing’ limited docuseries on the BBC.