"Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at the situation," NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said as Americans watched the remnants of the space shuttle Challenger fall back to the Earth on Jan. 28, 1986. "Obviously a major malfunction."
Forty years ago Wednesday, the Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its highly publicized flight, killing all seven crew members on board.
“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives," then-President Ronald Reagan said that day. "We will never forget them ... as they ... ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”
The culprit within the Challenger's infrastructure was its synthetic rubber O-rings, seals that kept rocket fuel from leaking out. Engineers had found the O-rings stiffened in cold temperatures — and the Challenger launched in cold weather.
"The decision to launch the Challenger was flawed," a commissioned report to the president read. "Those who made that decision were unaware of the recent history of problems concerning the O-rings. ... They did not have a clear understanding of [Challenger manufacturer] Rockwell’s concern that it was not safe to launch because of ice on the pad. If the decisionmakers had known all of the facts, it is highly unlikely that they would have decided to launch 51-L on January 28, 1986."
It was a singular moment in American history — and one of the defining moments in NASA's work post-Apollo missions. Its legacy has shaped much of the administration's work today.
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Now, as the federal space agency prepares for the launch of Artemis II, its first manned mission to the moon in more than half a century, NASA has several weather criteria determining when Artemis II should not be launched.
NASA factors in temperatures both on the ground and in the air when determining whether or not to fly. If the day is exceedingly hot, Artemis II will not fly if the temperature at both 132.5 feet and 257.5 feet in altitude exceeds 94.5 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 consecutive minutes.
On a cold day, NASA takes into consideration the wind and humidity to determine what temperatures permit launch. The cutoff temperature is somewhere between 38 degrees and 49 degrees Fahrenheit, each at those same altitudes.
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Artemis II also will not launch through precipitation. If winds exceed about 33 miles per hour at 132.5 feet in altitude, or about 45 miles per hour at 457.5 feet in altitude, the launch will not happen.
There are other factors based on lightning, thunderstorms and solar activity that could merit calling off, or "scrubbing," a launch, should those inhibit the flight path of Artemis II.
NASA’s earliest potential launch date is Feb. 6, with subsequent launch windows during the following days and also in March and April.
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