Which apollo spaceship explodes

Nowadays, the performance of George Frideric Handel's Messiah oratorio at Christmas time is a tradition almost as deeply entrenched as decorating trees and hanging stockings. In churches and concert halls around the world, the most famous piece of sacred music in the English On April 13, , Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role as a construction worker who helps build a chapel in Lilies of the Field Poitier was born in , while his parents were visiting the United States Christopher Wilder dies after a month-long crime spree involving at least 11 young women who have disappeared or been killed.

The Soviet government officially accepts blame for the Katyn Massacre of World War II, when nearly 5, Polish military officers were murdered and buried in mass graves in the Katyn Forest. The first engagement of the war ended in Rebel victory. Fidrych, the American League Rookie of the Year, suffocated when Live TV. This Day In History. NASA astronauts had died on the job before — Apollo 1 crewmembers Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee were lost when a fire broke out inside their command module during a launchpad exercise on Jan.

But you're taking someone who's not a professional, and it happened to be that mission that got lost — it added to the shock. Before Challenger launched on its ill-fated STSL mission, the space shuttle program had completed 24 missions in a row, starting with the April liftoff of the orbiter Columbia.

That run of success bred a measure of complacency, Chiao said. That type of thinking played a significant role in the disaster, experts have concluded. Challenger was lost because a rubber "O-ring" seal on the shuttle's right-hand solid rocket booster failed, allowing hot gas to escape and damage the orbiter's external fuel tank, as well as the gear that attached the booster to the tank.

The O-ring failed in part because unusually cold temperatures on launch day caused the part to harden, investigators later determined. The temperature at liftoff time was 36 degrees Fahrenheit 2 degrees Celsius — 15 degrees F 8 degrees C colder than any previous shuttle launch, NASA officials have said.

Those who made that decision were unaware of the recent history of problems concerning the O-rings and the joint, and were unaware of the initial written recommendation of the contractor advising against the launch at temperatures below 53 degrees Fahrenheit [ Every last little technical piece was re-analyzed.

Within several additional seconds, two other shorted conditions occurred. Electrical shorts in the fan circuit ignited the wire insulation, causing temperature and pressure to increase within cryogenic oxygen tank 2. When pressure reached the cryogenic oxygen tank 2 relief valve full-flow conditions of psi, the pressure began decreasing for about 9 seconds, at which time the relief valve probably reseated, causing the pressure to rise again momentarily.

About a quarter of a second later, a vibration disturbance was noted on the command module accelerometers. The next series of events occurred within a fraction of a second between the accelerometer disturbances and the data loss. A tank line burst, because of heat, in the vacuum jacket pressurizing the annulus and, in turn, causing the blow-out plug on the vacuum jacket to rupture. Some mechanism in bay 4 combined with the oxygen buildup in that bay to cause a rapid pressure rise which resulted in separation of the outer panel.

The panel struck one of the dishes of the high-gain antenna. The panel separation shock closed the fuel cell 1 and 3 oxygen reactant shut-off valves and several propellant and helium isolation valves in the reaction control system.