BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

Many remember where they were when President Kennedy was shot.
Many remember where they were when the Northridge Quake occurred.

There are those of us who had thousands of hours invested in in the success of this event.
We still grieve at such an unnecessary loss. Every engineer that was consulted said the same thing.
“DO NOT fly this bird in these weather conditions”.
But politics overruled science.
This incident forced them to reexamine 'Cost Cutting'.

I worked on that program and I knew those people.

-------------------------------------------------------------
The Challenger Space Shuttle was destroyed on this date, 38 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster

This was the 10th flight of Challenger, the 25 flight of the shuttle program.
In addition to the lives lost ...
o F. Richard Scobee, Commander
o Michael J. Smith, Pilot
o Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist
o Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist
o Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist
o Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist
o Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist, teacher

... there was an expensive payload in the orbiter's payload bay.

A new TDRS satellite, built by a company called “TRW”, from Redondo Beach, CA was attached to the Inertial Upper Stage booster (made by Boeing), together nestled in the payload bay.

WIKI:
The IUS that would have been used to boost the orbit of the TDRS-B satellite was one of the first pieces of debris recovered.[20]: 51  There was no indication that there had been premature ignition of the IUS, which had been one of the suspected causes for the disaster.[3]: 50  Debris from the three SSMEs was recovered from February 14 to 28,[20]: 51  and post-recovery analysis produced results consistent with functional engines suddenly losing their LH2 fuel supply.[19] Deepwater recovery operations continued until April 29, with smaller scale, shallow recovery operations continuing until August 29.[20]: 53  On December 17, 1996, two pieces of the orbiter were found at Cocoa Beach.[25] On November 10, 2022, NASA announced that a 20-foot (6 m) piece of the shuttle had been found near the site of a destroyed World War II-era aircraft off the coast of Florida.[26][27][28][29][30] The discovery was aired on the History Channel on November 22, 2022.[31] Almost all recovered non-organic debris from Challenger is buried in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station missile silos at LC-31 and LC-32.[32]

IUS: https://secure.boeingimages.com/archive/Inertial-Upper-Stage--IUS--Launched-from-Space-Shuttle-Cargo-Bay-2F3XC5USLWK.html

Supporting the IUS and Spacecraft as well as the Shuttle itself, a multitude of systems built by many companies including TRW, many hundreds if not thousands of subcontractors, and assembled by North American Rockwell (Downey CA). http://www.nasatech.net/SpaceShuttle/
The shuttles help built the TDRSS (Satellite System), bu inserting TRDS satellites into orbit. The ground stations, especially at White Sands, were a core of the TRDSS. I was also involved in developing a Calibration Component for the S and Ku band systems, which was temporarily installed at White Sands. (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20110015501/downloads/20110015501.pdf)

At the time of the fateful Challenger launch, I was an engineer in charge of (3) large power supplies that supported the IUS and attached spacecraft. TRW built a plethora of avionics for the shuttle and she pertinent to the IUS support. This was all in excess one the complex systems built into the TRDA (Satellite) on board the orbiter.

I was in the building where the (TDRS) satellite was assembled, watching a live public TV broadcast of the launch like millions of people.
We were all in awe when we witnessed the explosion. This not only resulted in investigations by NASA into the root cause, but extra equipment had to be built to support future launches. Contracts for more power supplies and avionics to support the IUS were later written. TRW was still building more satellites, and some were probably put in storage. Not until 2 years later was the next TDRS launch on Shuttle Discovery.

IUS et al IN THE PAYLOAD BAY
(PHOTOGRAPH)
Typical assembly of the shuttle orbiter “bay" (open), the IUS booster, attached to a satellite for injection into higher orbit. (c/o Boeing)

The trunion tilts, the IUS is springs off, then when sufficiently far from the orbiter, the IUS solid rocket engine is fired.
At a point, the spacecraft (satellite) and the IUS are separated, hopefully, after the proper trajectory has been met.

(In technical discussions involving the “manned” missions where the IUS/ORBITER are used to launch some payloads, astronauts are reported to have said - “ You better give us a crow bar in case that thing does not spring out - we’re not bringing it back” )

The first orbiter launch of TDRS-A on the IUS from the Shuttle Challenger in 1983 resulted in a improper trajectory.
It took months (April 4 ~ June 29) as TRW & NASA engineers applied the satellite's own small thruster systems to get it into proper GEO orbit.
TDRS-1 was retired in 2010.



TDRSS: Tracking Data Relay Satellite System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_and_Data_Relay_Satellite_System

The first 7 TDRS (satellites) were built by TRW (now part of Northrop Grumman).
The remainder have been built by Hughes Space and Communications (now part of Boeing).

TDRS History (TRW sats):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TDRS_satellites

• TDRS-1 (TDRS-A designation before insertion into orbit) - launched on IUS, Shuttle Challenger maiden flight, April 1983
o Issues with the IUS placed the IUS-Satellite into an improper orbit.
o Retired to graveyard orbit in June 2010.
• TDRS-B never inserted due to this Challenger disaster on Jan 28, 1986
• TDRS-3 (TDRS-C) , Sept 29, 1988 on Discovery, after a 2 year hiatus of the Shuttle program.
o TDRS-3 is in a storage orbit as of 2020, after TDRS-1 was decommissioned
• TDRS-4 Launched on Discovery, March 1989, deactivated May 2012.
• TDRS-5 (TDRS-E) Launched on Atlantis Aug, 1991 (still operational)
• TDRS-6 (TDRS-F) Launched on Endeavour Jan, 1993 (still operational)
• TDRS-7 (TDRS-G) Replacement for TDRS-B, launched July 1995 on Discovery

TDRS 8,9,10 were built by Hughes (Boeing), launched on Atlas-IIA rockets, from 2000–2002
TDRS 11,12,13 were built by Boeing , launched on Atlas-V rockets, from 2013 —2017

25 Years of Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-1 Operations
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2514/6.2008-3312

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I was teaching at a Jr High in East Los Angeles. I and most of the teachers in the school had the launch on TV in our rooms. Partly because of the teacher in the shuttle crew.
Needless to say, the passing time to the next period and pretty much the whole morning fell apart as students, teachers, admin and everyone else on campus stood around and talked about what had happened. More than a few cried. I was a combination of sad and going into GI cussing mode (I did manage to keep my mouth shut and cuss silently).

The school had a brief memorial at lunch.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

I was at work. I remember it well.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

Terrible loss of life. Wish our space program was more vigorous.

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah