Irvine High School - Citadel Yearbook (Irvine, CA)

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CHALLENGER On Tuesday. January 28, 1986, at 8 39 Pacific Standard Time, slightly more than one minute into what had appeared to be a perfect blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members aboard The explosion occurred at a very critical moment m the launch One minute after takeoff, shuttle com- mander Frances R. Scobee was given instructions to restore the engines to their full power potential, which subjects the shuttle to extreme pressure Go with throttle up. a Johnson Space Center (Houston) Controller told Scobee Roger Scobee said, go with throttle up ' Those were the last words heard from the shuttle Challenger At that precise moment the transmission end- ed, flames shot from between the mam fuel tank and the right booster rocket, and the mam tank erupted The spacecraft was obliterated Watchers at both the Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers waited for a final official word, although it was ap- parent that there v ere no survivors The U S would forever mourn the ' .•.•. nown as The Challenger Seven, consisting of Scobee Pilot Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Judith Resnik, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis, Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, and the school leacner chobcn to become the first private American citizen to venture into space, Christa McAuliffe. This was the tenth flight of the shut tie Challenger, and the 25th flight of the Syear-old program Being only the 2nd major disaster m U S space history, this tragedy placed the entire space program on hold, with the late of the Shuttle program, and all manned space flight, hanging in the balance While at presstime no official cause had been cited for the tragedy, a cause suggested by NASA officials was that a seam in the right solid rocket booster ruptured, spewing flames near the mam tank, causing the highly volatile liquid fuel m the mam lank to explode While viewing slow motion video tapes of the disaster. NASA officials found that puffs of smoke were seen emerrjing from the right solid rocket booslc-f approximately two seconds h(;lofc lift oil However according to Jesse W. Moore, NASA s associate director of space flight and the official who gave the final approval to com mence the Ihght. the problem was not one that could be detected boloro hi toff l oore said that the solid rocket boosters wore one ol the salesi parts of the shuttle apparatus, duo to the fact that during some of Itm preliminary shulllo testing, there wore many problems with the construction of the solid rocket booster, which pro mpted NASA engineers to make it practically fail safe After the explosion, Moore ordered an immediate investigation of the tragedy by a review team of high ranking NASA officials and others All NASA film, notes, tapes and data relating to the launch were to be im pounded for study The Defense Department handled the rescue ef fort, finding what they could ol the shuttle, which included heat tiles and small parts of the shuttlecraft, m the ocean However, all was not technical The Space Shuttles Challenger. Columbia, Atlantis and Discovery had become an American symbol, but now they were an American tragedy The President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, proclaimed the day to be one of mourning and remember- ing In a special ceremony at the Johnson Space Center, President Reagan led a solemn tribute to the Challenger Seven, and honored the surviving families Flags at the Space Center and around the country were lowered to half-staff the day of the tragedy The president delayed his Stale of the Union address, to be delivered the evening of the tragedy and instead issued a statement about the mission In his statement. President Reagan voiced his wish that the space pro- gram continue with the same en- thusiasm as before He praised the en- tire crew as pioneers and heroes ol VOYAGER Originally planned for a five-year space exploration of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, the unmanned spacecraft. Voyager II, beamed to earth streams of information about and photographs of Uranus that had never been known before Wore quite excited. Jet Propul M, • .1 ■ I ' -ry (JPL) Project Scientist Edward Stone told TIME magazine II It I. I. . cddoof discovery Voyagei II was launched on August 20, 1977 It reached Jupiter on July 9, 1979 and Saturn on August 25, 1981 According to a February issue ol TIME magazine, the National Aeronautics ana Space Administration (NASA) decided to further the spacecralt s mission Saturn s gravitational pull was used to hurl Voyager II on to Uranus Voyager II reached Uranus on January 24, 1986 Voyager II discovered a tenth ring and ten small previously unkriown moons, cloud lormalions. surlaco loaluros and a magnetic liold on Uranus boloro. those simcluros had space exploration To the millions of school chikJren watching the event from their classrooms. Reagan had a special message I know it IS hard to understarxl. txjt sometimes pamlul thmgs like this hap pen Us all a part of the process ol ex ploration and discovery It s all a p art of taking a chance and expanding man s horizons The luture doesn t belong to the fainthearted It belongs to the brave The Challenger crew was pull- ing us to the luture. and we II continue to follow them Finally the President pnomised the continuation of exploration ol the last frontier I have great faith m, and respect for. our space program And what hap- pened today does nothing to dimmish It We II continue our quest m space There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews, and yes. more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers m space Nothing ends here Our hopes continue And in conclusion The crew of the space shuttle honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them — this morning — as they prepared for their journey and waved goodby and slipped the surly borvds ol Earth to touch the face ol God — by Tracy Peterson only been tiny spots barely discernible through the earth s telescopes Photographs also revealed that Uranus had a liquid core What we have seen thus lar has been spectacular. Ellis Min«r. Voyager lis deputy project scientist, told TIME magazine What was equally amazing was that the inlormation and photographs reached JPL when there were 1 84 billion miles t etween the sp acecralt and earth The mlormation and photographs were sent through Voyager Us transmitter, which traveled at the speed of light With antennaes in three of its complexes in California. Australia and Spam. NASA picked up the transmissions Through oloclronic combination, transmission rale slowdown and computer enhance- ment, details that would have been otherwise invisible wore printed Alter Uranus. Voyager II trekked lo Neptune II is oxpoctod lo reach Nep tune in August 1989 — by Tarn Iran • ' i 20 Year in Review

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DANCE FEVER Dancing lo the music ol Ibe vKJeo DJ. Senior Titfany Allen and Eric Ftores en |oy some extra space on the dance floor KING OF HEARTS COURT Prince Balamir Tnjnic. Prince John Littler. King Mike Cenllo, Prince Shawn Palchell, Prince Jefl Cova Also pictured, the 1985 86 Homecoming Court An- drea Dworzak, Suzelle Ford. Marlice Patam. Apnl Peacher, Shelley Moceri 1 • wyj 1 ■ % 1 1 ' it ' - B j I H H H H Albert and James Albert and James TWO OF A KIND Senior Suzelte Ford and her date Dan Gallardo talk together while taking a break from dancing PRINCE CHARMING Homecoming Princess Shelley Moceri presents Jetf Cova with a fresh tto wer lei on his election to the King ol Hearts Court Sweethearts ' Ball 19

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fm TRAGIC FIREBALL The space shuttle H Challenger explodes in mid air 74 seconds after ' fl take-off SUITING-UP Chnsta McAullife, the first teacher selected for space exploration, inspects her space suit at the NASA space center in Texas. Year-in-Review 21