The Challenger Disaster Page #4

The elevator's just to your right, sir.

...to begin what may be a lengthy process.

Millions of Americans who watched our heroes perish

only 73 seconds after take-off on that cold January morning

are waiting for answers.

Nancy and I are pained to the core about the tragedy

of the shuttle Challenger...

Hello.

Graham.

You got me in, great.

I'll take a plane down in the morning.

Thanks.

Alpha plus.

I've always had great faith in and respect for our space programme.

We don't hide our space programme.

We don't keep secrets and cover things up.

We do it all upfront and in public.

That's the way freedom is and we wouldn't change it for a minute.

Wow, it's immense.

This is an identical craft?

No, it's a training simulator.

but for your purposes, the flight deck systems, the payload bay, etc,

virtually identical.

Want to see the flight deck?

You have four human beings jammed in this space?

Can I sit here?

Yeah.

Wow.

OK. So...

they got S-Band communication links...

environmental control systems...

cabin pressure gauges...

What is that? Emergency oxygen.

Don't touch things.

Hmm.

Come on.

Dick Feynman. I'm on the Commission.

I got nothing to hide.

If I was to ask you engineers,

never mind what the managers say, but you guys...

Given all your experience,

what you thought the probability was of an accident on any single launch,

what would you say?

I mean, if you don't want to say out loud,

perhaps you could write it down on a piece of paper.

So you're looking at the solid rocket boosters.

OK, so...

They're not made here.

No - they're made by contractors, Morton Thiokol in Utah.

Railroaded into Kennedy in sections.

That's a pretty standard tang and clevis joint.

Look, there's no ways it was the solid rocket boosters.

How so certain? Because they don't fly with holes in them.

If it was the SRB, it would have exploded on the launch pad.

These kept on flying, you see it in the footage.

You watched the footage. Tell me what you saw.

What went through your mind?

What did you think it was?

I thought it was the main engines.

OK. Why? Why the main engines?

Because of the complexity.

They're working at the outer edge of any experience base.

In the blade technology?

No, no, no, it's more than the blades, it's...

Hey...

There is no ways that I'm ratting out my co-workers here.

Look, pal...

If we're not allowed to find out what went wrong,

there will be no more co-workers.

All these jobs will be gone, kaput.

Won't be another shuttle launch.

Of the events on the morning of the 28th of January,

the Presidential Commission investigating the accident,

headed by former Secretary of State William Rogers,

has met mostly behind closed doors.

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