Could the Challenger Disaster Have Been Prevented?

Could the Challenger Disaster Have Been Prevented?

Author: The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios January 27, 2025 Duration: 37:57
HISTORY This Week
HistoryCultureEducationSocietySociety & Culture
January 28, 1986. It's freezing in Central Florida, a historically cold day. That's bad news for citrus growers, and for NASA, which is scheduled to launch the Space Shuttle Challenger from Cape Canaveral this morning. Engineers have ben cautioning NASA that cold temperatures can make space launches dangerous. And yet, NASA decides to move ahead. They consider it an "acceptable risk" and send seven astronauts hurtling into the sky. What went wrong with the Space Shuttle Challenger? And if engineers knew what could happen, why wasn’t this disaster avoided? Special thanks to Adam Higginbotham, author of Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, something big happened. You might have never heard of it, but this moment changed the course of history. A HISTORY Channel original podcast, HISTORY This Week gives you insight into the people—both famous and unknown—whose decisions reshaped the world we live in today. Through interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, each episode will give you a new perspective on how history is written. Stay up-to-date at historythisweekpodcast.com and to get in touch, email us at historythisweek@history.com.HISTORY This Week is a production of Back Pocket Studios in partnership with the History Channel.
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