WARNING:O-Rings resiliency declines in cold weather
There were a few damages to the O-rings
Below 53°F
ERROR: NO DATA FOUND
It has never been done!
YAY! Launch day!
-5°C
Pre-launch, Thiokol engineers expressed concerns the effect low temperatures would have on the O-rings.
It's launch day on January 28, 1986, and temperatures had dropped to -5.6°C. Concerns arose as there had never been a launch done below 11°C.
Nonetheless, NASA personnel pressured Thiokol to agree to launch.
On the 28th of January 1986 at The Kennedy Space Centre, NASA Challenger launched at 11:38AM EST in -5.6°C.
3, 2, 1...LIFT OFF!
NASA Challenger sustained damages to the O-Rings of the lowest solid rocket booster (SRB) joint due to the cold temperature. Tragically, Challenger exploded and all 7 crew members lost their lives 73 seconds into the flight.
The Disaster resulted from: (1) normalisation of deviance, (2) organisational silence, and (3) silent safety organisation. Unfortunately, NASA didn't learn from their mistakes and in 2003 NASA Columbia suffered the same fate at the hands of mechanical and organisation failure.