The Challenger Disaster Viewed at
Pittsburgh’s Buhl Planetarium
A
Personal Remembrance From 20 Years Ago
2006 January
2006 January 28 marks the 20th
anniversary of the second of three major tragedies of the American Space Program.
It is also a cruel irony that all three tragedies occurred within one particular
week of the calendar—between January 27 and February 1 --
1967 January 27: Fire in the
Command Module of Apollo 1, which killed three astronauts while they were preparing
for the launch of the first manned Apollo mission: Virgil "Gus"
Ivan Grissom, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Commander), Edward Higgins White, II,
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Command Module Pilot), and Roger Bruce Chaffee,
Lieutenant Commander, USN (Lunar Module Pilot).
1986 January 28: Explosion of
the
Space Shuttle Challenger (
Mission STS 51-L), shortly after launch, which
included seven astronauts including the first Teacher-in-Space:
Francis R.
(Dick) Scobee (Mission Commander), Michael J. Smith (Pilot), Judith A. Resnik
(Mission
Specialist 1 and graduate of Carnegie Mellon University),
Ellison S. Onizuka
(Mission Specialist 2),
Ronald E. McNair
(Mission Specialist 3),
Gregory B.
Jarvis (Payload Specialist 1), and
Sharon Christa McAuliffe (Payload Specialist
2 and first Teacher-in-Space).
2003 February 1: Explosion of
the
Space Shuttle Columbia (Mission STS-107), during re-entry, which included
seven astronauts: Colonel Rick Husband (Commander), William McCool (Pilot),
Colonel Michael Anderson (Payload Commander), Captain
David Brown (Mission
Specialist), Dr. Kalpana Chawla (Mission Specialist), Captain Laurel Clark
(Mission Specialist), and Colonel Ilan Ramon (Payload Specialist).
At
The Planetarium Department,
for the first time, had specially leased a satellite dish (which was mounted
just outside the emergency exit of the Little Science Theater/Lecture Hall) for
coverage of the passage of the Planet Uranus by the Voyager 2 space probe the
previous week, as well as for the Challenger Shuttle launch, so that these
events could be watched live, from the “NASA Select” satellite channel. The
projection television system, connected to the satellite dish, was mounted to
project images on the large movie projection screen in the 250-seat Little
Science Theater (Lecture Hall) of Buhl Planetarium.
Besides the NASA satellite
channel (which was not normally available to the public), the Cable News
Network (CNN) cable television channel was the only network to broadcast the Challenger
Shuttle launch live. In fact, both the American First Lady Nancy Reagan (in the
White House residence), and U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush (in his
office) saw the explosion live on CNN. CNN did not broadcast the Voyager 2
coverage live. Neither the Challenger Shuttle launch, nor the Voyager 2 coverage,
was broadcast live on any of the regular, commercial television broadcast
channels.
Buhl Planetarium provided
live coverage to the public of the Voyager 2 encounter with Uranus. The public
could view the live NASA video feed, in the Little Science Theater on:
Wednesday, January 22 and
Thursday, January 23—each day from 1:00 to 4:15 p.m. EST
Friday, January 24, Saturday,
January 25, and Sunday, January 26—each day from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. EST.
During the Voyager 2
encounter with Uranus, Buhl Planetarium staff members were available to answer
public questions. This included Buhl Planetarium Lecturer
Francis G. Graham
(Founder of the
American Lunar Society), who at that time also taught at the
Community College of Beaver County (he is now a Professor of Astronomy and
Physics at Kent State University, as well as a Steering Committee member of Friends of the Zeiss). During some hours,
members of the Pittsburgh
L5 Society were also available to field public
questions.
1986 was a busy year for
Astronomy and Space Sciences. Coverage of the Voyager 2 at Uranus and
Challenger Shuttle launch events occurred during a “hiatus” of the year-long
“Halley Watch.” During the Autumn of 1985 and the Spring of 1986, thousands of
people waited patiently in line (sometimes the wait in line was more than one
hour!) to view Halley’s Comet’s rare passage of Planet Earth at Buhl
Planetarium; Halley’s Comet could not be viewed in January of 1986, as it was
on the other side of the Sun.
Visitors viewed Halley’s
Comet in Buhl Planetarium’s third floor Observatory, using either the historic
10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope or the portable 13-inch Dobsonian
Reflector Telescope (the Dobsonian Telescope, known as a “light bucket” that
can gather enough light for viewing a dim comet, was purchased specifically for
“Halley Watch”). While Halley’s Comet was not visible in telescopes for some of
the Winter, Buhl Planetarium continued providing a planetarium show for the
public, in the 425-seat Theater of the Stars utilizing the historic Zeiss II Planetarium Projector, titled, “Comet Halley: Once in a
Lifetime.”
Although the third floor
Observatory was one of the few areas of the Buhl Planetarium building which had
not been made handicapped-accessible by 1982 utilizing a special Federal grant
(funneled through the City of
Shortly after the nearly
year-long apparition of Halley’s Comet (public observing ended in May of 1986,
as the Comet became too distant for the public to easily view in a telescope),
on 1986 June 13 Buhl Planetarium started weekly (weather permitting) Friday
evening public observing sessions, 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the third floor
Observatory. Although evening public Observatory sessions had been scheduled on
a regular basis by the Amateur Astronomers’ Association of Pittsburgh, when the
Observatory first opened on 1941 November 19, over the years the scheduling of
these public sessions had become sporadic, due to Pittsburgh’s always troubling
weather and staffing and funding priorities of Buhl Planetarium. The new Friday
evening public sessions in the Observatory (open every Friday evening, weather
permitting, year-round) lasted until the Buhl Planetarium closed as a public
museum on 1991 August 31.
For the Challenger Shuttle
launch, Buhl Planetarium Public Relations Director Jo Lee had arranged for a
group of elementary school students, from nearby St. Peter’s Elementary School
(now known as Cardinal Wright Regional School), to view the launch live in Buhl
Planetarium’s Lecture Hall. Normally, weekday mornings were reserved for such
school groups; the building was not open to the public until 1:00 p.m. Although
if the occasional tourist sought admission in the morning, they were usually
admitted, provided that the building was occupied with school children (and,
the visitor realized they would have to see what planetarium show was scheduled
by the school groups if there were
additional seats in the Theater of the Stars).
I arrived at Buhl Planetarium
a little earlier than usual, on that Tuesday morning of January 28, in
anticipation of the special NASA launch. I assisted Buhl Planetarium Computer
Lab Technician Christian Ludwig with setting-up the video tape equipment, so
that we would have a good tape recording of the launch.
Shortly before the launch,
the school children and about twenty Buhl Planetarium staff members (with about
a half-dozen children of some of these staff members) assembled in the Little
Science Theater. The launch of the spacecraft went well, for the first minute
or so. Then something happened, and, at first, no one could be quite sure what
it was. At about the time the solid rocket boosters were to be jettisoned (for
parachuting to the ocean for later retrieval), there was an explosion—but, at
first, this seemed normal for jettisoning the boosters. But, then we could no
longer see the spacecraft moving on.
The audio on the NASA
satellite channel was silent—for what seemed several minutes.
Finally, the NASA commentator,
Steve Nesbitt (known as the “Voice of Mission Control”) said something about
there being a problem: “Flight controllers are looking very carefully at the
situation. Obviously a major malfunction. We have no (radio) downlink.” Then
more silence. In an interview published the next day in the
In Buhl Planetarium’s Little
Science Theater, no one knew what to make of the situation. As Public Relations
Director Jo Lee told a reporter for The Pittsburgh Press (published in
that afternoon’s edition): “There was just a pall. They’re just standing around
the TV not saying anything.” She also mentioned that some of the pre-school
children (ages 4 to 6, whose parents worked at the Buhl Planetarium) did not
appear to understand what happened.
Fortunately, that morning I
had brought my transistor radio with me, to hear pre-launch news reports while
traveling into the city on the subway (although I could not receive any radio
stations while actually in the subway tunnel). I rushed downstairs to my locker
to get the radio, and immediately brought it back to the Little Science
Theater. Then, we learned of the awful tragedy.
The students were quickly
moved out of the Little Science Theater. Audrey Williams, one of the Planetarium
Lecturers and a graduate student in the Department of Geology and Planetary
Science at the
It was a terrible day for me,
and the others who viewed the explosion live at Buhl Planetarium.
gaw
SpaceCraft Operators are responsible for the pre-checkout of Space Shuttle missions, as well as other rocket launches. Through his career, Mr. McClelland was involved in 623 rocket launches! SpaceCraft Operators actually "fly" the mission in simulation to be certain all systems are operating correctly.
SpaceCraft Operators were also considered for actual mission status until the U.S. Congress cut the shuttle budget. Mr. McClelland says, "I came within a hair of having my dream come true. At least my student, Astronaut Jay Apt flew. I and others taught Jay astronomy at Buhl."
Mr. McClelland was born on Pittsburgh's North Side and was a Boy Scout in Troop 56 at the Community House; he later moved to the Pittsburgh northern suburb of Millvale. He moved to Cape Canaveral in 1958.
|
From: |
"Clark C.
McClelland" |
|
To: |
gawalsh@planetarium.cc |
|
Subject: |
From Clark
McClelland "Challenger" |
|
Date: |
|
Use
this for your members to read if you wish.
Hi
Glenn:
Yes, this
day I will never forget. I had an office at the KSC HQ Building and had worked
on the Challenger 51-L mission.
I
knew Judy Resnik very well. I had invited her back to
The
day she and the crew were launched at KSC, I recall watching the Space Shuttle
Challenger liftoff. As it was gaining altitude, I heard a strange chatter from
the SRB solid rockets and wondered why it had not appeared during many
other shuttles I had viewed prior.
The
Challenger climbed out and I heard "Go with throttle up". Shortly
thereafter the craft exploded and I and others were in deep shock. I watched
the crew compartment falling at great speed and viewed it hitting the
I heard
other KSC workers saying that it would circle around and land at the shuttle
landing strip. Wishful thinking by those who could not accept the obvious
truth. People were crying, walking as if they were zombies past me staring into
the void.
I
finally drove my car home across the river with tears in my eyes the entire
distance. I called my Mother and Father in
Each
year at this time, I still go through a couple of days of total sorrow and
recall all that I had experienced.
My
former crew at KSC was also involved in the
To
explore the unknown, it has great risks and terrible loses, I know, I was
there.
Clark
C. McClelland, ScO, Space Shuttle Fleet, KSC,