By https://x.com/rumpdumpler/status/2051338760109883888
NASA has confirmed reports that space officials discussed putting Big Bird on the space shuttle Challenger, before it was lost along with its entire crew in an explosion in 1986. But the space agency said the plan never got to the point of giving Caroll Spinney, the human who portrays the 8-foot-2 bird on the “Sesame Street” TV show, a spot on the passenger list.
I was eight years old when Challenger exploded. I watched it on TV at school. I remember crying because a teacher was on there. The other people were mysteries to me. The teacher dying stuck with me. To this day I cant name a single person who died on there except Christa Mcauliffe. I can only imagine the trauma I’d have suffered knowing one of the fundamental memories of my growing up was fucking Big Bird exploded on a space shuttle. Imagine, instead of hearing about GenX’ers drinking from the hose and staying out til the streetlights came on you’d all be listening to trauma dumps about Big Bird blowing the fuck up. JFC.
Horrifying fact
The astronauts survived the explosion and were likely fully conscious up until the cockpit hit the water at 200 mph. They watched the ocean surface grow closer through the cockpit window for 2 minutes and 45 seconds while fully knowing their fate.
I cried when I learned this.
At least some of the crew were alive and conscious after the breakup, as Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) were activated for Smith and two unidentified crewmembers, but not for Scobee. The PEAPs were not intended for in-flight use, and the astronauts never trained with them for an in-flight emergency. The location of Smith’s activation switch, on the back side of his seat, indicated that either Resnik or Onizuka likely activated it for him. Investigators found their remaining unused air supply consistent with the expected consumption during the post-breakup trajectory.
While analyzing the wreckage, investigators discovered that several electrical system switches on Smith’s right-hand panel had been moved from their usual launch positions. The switches had lever locks on top of them that must be pulled out before the switch could be moved. Later tests established that neither the force of the explosion nor the impact with the ocean could have moved them, indicating that Smith made the switch changes, presumably in a futile attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter.
Pressurization could have enabled consciousness for the entire fall until impact. The crew cabin hit the ocean surface at 207 mph (333 km/h) approximately 2 minutes and 45 seconds after breakup. The estimated deceleration was 200 g, far exceeding structural limits of the crew compartment or crew survivability levels. [emphasis mine]
They watched the ocean surface grow closer through the cockpit window for 2 minutes and 45 seconds while fully knowing their fate
I mean realistically only Smith, Onizuka, and Resnik could have been staring through the windows at the ocean for almost 3 minutes. McAuliffe, Jarvis, and McNair were seated on the mid-deck and only had a window in the side egress hatch which their chairs didn’t face.
Good to know, I guess. Impressive knowledge. You ever play KSP, by chance?
Yeah I have played KSP but spaceflight is more of a ‘read about it’ hobby for me beyond the like 60 hours I sunk into Elite Dangerous haha. I did a real deep dive on Challenger & Columbia awhile back after seeing the memorial & fuselage at Kennedy Space Center.
FWIW I personally believe the theory that the crew cabin lost pressure after the orbiter broke apart and they all quickly lost consciousness before striking the ocean - based on the facts that:
- Activating the PEAPs was likely in response to the cabin depressurizing. 3/4 of the ones found were activated.
- They found shrapnel embedded in one of the windows (debatable though due to the high velocity of the impact with the ocean)
- The fact that the PEAPs, even when activated, would not have provided enough oxygen to keep them conscious if the cabin had depressurized.
I’m subscribing to that too because fuck them being conscious and falling at 200mph for 3 minutes
- at 88mph, the dangers of impacting water becomes worse than the dangers of impacting the pyramids
One faulty O-ring, two faulty O-rings, three faulty o-rings ha-ha-ha
The thought of Caroll Spinney dying on the Challenger fills me with a kind of undefinable dread
This is as good a place to bring this up as I’ll ever get, so @buckykat@hexbear.net you have any plans to do a second post on the STS program?
Yes, I do, thank you for nagging me about it (entirely serious, not sarcastic)
Hell yeah, glad I didn’t come across like an asshole bc I’m genuinely pretty excited about it, especially since I know next to nothing about Columbia
why though
The Teacher in Space program that ended up picking Christa McAuliffe was intended to be a major outreach program for schoolchildren. The main reason so many people remember seeing the Challenger exploding was because the launch was live broadcast directly to and for classrooms. Sesame Street, as an extremely popular PBS educational program for children, was an obvious option to consider. A few years earlier there was a Big Bird in China TV special.
Thats exactly right. It really was a big deal. I remember the teacher having to go get a giant CRT TV from the AV room, having to wheel it into the classroom, someone to come hook it up to the cable system, get it all set up… We did all sorts of lessons about space for some days before, and I think we were supposed to do something more when she landed but since the alternative happened none of those planned lessons came to fruition. I think it affected a generation of Americans.
I remember the teacher having to go get a giant CRT TV from the AV room, having to wheel it into the classroom
Gen X’s 9/11 (unironically)
She was supposed to broadcast lessons from space, showing and teaching about space. You should have been watching McAuliffe showing you cool stuff like the Dzhanibekov Effect for the next week or two on that giant CRT.
Oh that’s kinda sad
If Big Bird had died on the shuttle do you think they would have written him off the show?
They will have too, the launch was shown on classroom around the country, kids would have know big bird was inside when it blow up
