What was the fatal flaw that caused the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster?
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The o-ring explanation is accurate as far as it goes, as it was the immediate cause of the shuttle’s destruction. However, the horizontal stacking scheme of the orbiter, external tank, and solid rocket boosters was the root cause of both the Challenger and Columbia disaster. Mounting the orbiter alongside the external tank and solid rocket boosters exposed the orbiter’s heat shield tiles to debris from the external tank. Since the external tank carried cryogenic fuels that were extremely cold and would require a lot of foam insulation, foam and ice shedding during launch was a predictable hazard to the fragile heat shield tiles. The horizontal stack also prevented any sort of abort scenario during the entire time the boosters were firing, and the boosters could not be extinguished once ignited. The lack of an abort system doomed the Challenger crew, and falling external tank debris doomed the Columbia. Every other human-rated launch system has used some sort of escape rocket system to save the crew at any time during launch.
Notably, SpaceX’s Starship also does not have an escape system. I won’t comment on the wisdom of this decision.
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