Challenger explosion On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle, Challenger was launched. 73 seconds later the shuttle exploded leaving no survivors. This included Christa McAuliffe, a school teacher that was selected to teach school kids all over the country. There were seven victims. It was later determined that two rubber O-rings, designed to separate the sections of the rocket booster, had failed due to the cold weather the space shuttle interacted with earlier that morning. The explosion forced NASA to suspend all shuttle missions.
Challenger was NASA'S second space shuttle, and had taken 9 voyages before 1986. That year it was planned to launch on January 22, and carry a seven person crew. Christa McAuliffe was a 37 year-old social studies teacher that was selected and had been training for months for the trip. She was going to be the first ordinary American citizen to go to space. The launch was delayed for six days due to the weather conditions being too cold and technical problems. On January 28, the weather was unusually cold and the engineers where taking caution by warning their superiors that certain components on the shuttle- mainly the O-rings- could possibly fail because of the low temperatures. These warnings were pushed aside, and at 11:39 a.m. Challenger was launched. Hundreds of people were watching on the ground, including the family of McAuliffe and the other astronauts. They watched as Challenger exploded 73 seconds after the launch. Soon after the disaster, President Ronald Reagan formed a group to figure out what went wrong and how to stop it from happening again in the future. Lead by former Secretary of State William Rogers, the commission included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. Their team figured out that the O-ring seals on the rocket booster interfered with the cold and caused them to become brittle and fail. Flames then broke out of the booster and went to the fuel tank, which caused Challenger to explode. The team also figured out that Morton Thiokol, the company that designed the solid rocket boosters, had ignored warnings about potential issues. NASA managers were aware of these design problems and failed to take action on these problems. After the explosion, NASA stopped launching for two years. Then, in November of 1988, NASA launched Discovery. It was successful. Since then, the space shuttle has completed many important missions. Ten years after the Challenger disaster, two large pieces of Challenger's shuttle washed up onto a beach in Florida. The pieces are now stored in a missile silo in Cape Canaveral. |
protesting for democracy In 1989, there was huge protest in China. Many University students took to the streets of Beijing hoping to get their country to become democratic, and put an end to their Chinese communist party's 40-year monopoly on power. The demonstrations lasted for months, but the government refused to change. In June, the Chinese government decided to use force to break up the demonstrators.
Thousands were killed by their own soldiers and one man stood in front of a long line of tanks refusing to let them pass. The citizens wanted no more communism in their country, but Deng Xiaoping, a Chinese reform leader, considered himself a strong communist and wanted nothing to do with the other parties. He wasn't going to change the country and power into something else. Hu Yaobang worked with Xiaoping but he had become increasingly critical of the party and corruption of the ranks. The older party officials decided they had enough of Hu and wanted Hu gone. This idea was also supported by Deng. Yaobang sided with a student protester who wanted China to become a democratic country. This is what kicked Yaobang out of his position. He was forced to resign in January of 1987. Hu suffered from a heart attack on April 8, 1989, and died April 15 at age 73. The government thought no one cared about Hu and they had a private funeral. The people did care about Hu and were arranging a large march to Tiananmen Square, Students gathered at Tiananmen Square on Tuesday April 18. No one was injured and they all left the next day. They kept coming back and their group kept growing. Thousands and thousands joined. The protesting continued throughout all of May. During that time, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev came to visit. On Friday, June 2, 1989, protesters began to spot busloads of troops and equipment being carried to the center of the city. It was pretty certain that these soldiers were getting set to break up the demonstrators. At many places, protesters began to smash the windows on the buses and cause damage. The soldiers were shown to be young and inexperienced, so many fled the scene. Later that day, the government sent more experienced troops to retrieve the equipment and help the inexperienced. That was soon unsuccessful when protesters stood in their way. The troops then began to throw tear gas at the demonstrators. The next day, the government began warning the protesters. If they did not leave, then there would be major consequences; possibly death. The demonstrators thought no harm was going to be done. They were very wrong. Troops and police were filling the streets and clearing all the foreigners. Then later that night they started shooting warning shots and stun grenades, but the students stayed. By eleven that night, the troops and police were aiming at protesters. They began shooting at the crowd. It continued all through the next day. It continued until Tiananmen Square was clear. On the evening of June 9, 1989, Deng Xiaping went on television to praise the troops for winning and to share that all the protesters were gone. Despite all the strength, bravery, and courage the protesters showed, China remained a communist country. |