The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

quired modification, which would have halted flight
operations.

1986 Missions and the ChallengerDisaster Colum-
bia’s six-day STS 61-C mission launched on January
12 with Congressman Bill Nelson of Florida aboard.
This flight included investigations of Halley’s comet.
Columbialanded at Edwards Air Force Base.
STS 51-L was to deploy TDRS-B. President Rea-
gan had directed NASA to search for a Teacher in
Space participant, and Christa McAuliffe of New
Hampshire was selected to join six other astronauts.
Challengerexperienced several weather delays and
technical difficulties before its launch on January

28. Media and educational institutions focused on
    the historic Teacher in Space’s journey. An SRB joint
    O-ring failed at ignition, leading to a catastrophic ve-
    hicle breakup seventy-three seconds after liftoff. All
    crew members onboard were killed.
    A presidential commission issued a final report
    critical of how NASA left problems unaddressed
    while schedule pressures kept shuttles flying. A safer
    SRB joint design was developed and tested into the
    summer of 1988. Shuttle payload manifests had been
    severely disrupted, but NASA focused on safety;
    sadly, that lesson had not been learned until seven
    astronauts lost their lives and a $2 billion orbiter was
    destroyed.

Return to Flight On September 29, 1988, NASA
stood poised forDiscover y’s STS-26 launch.Discover y
carried another TDRS. Five astronauts deployed
TDRS-C, paid tribute to Challenger’s crew, and
landed at Edwards Air Force Base after four days.
Atlantis’s classified STS-27 mission launched on De-
cember 2.Discover ylifted off on March 13, 1989, to
begin the five-day STS-29 mission. After deploying
TDRS-D and completing secondary experiments,
the space shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base.
Subsequent missions included STS-30, which car-
ried the Magellan probe, sent to map Venus, and
STS-34, which dispatched the Galileo probe to Jupi-
ter. Classified DOD missions includedColumbia’s
STS-28 andDiscover y’s STS-33.

Impact Space shuttle operations commenced in
1981 and in four years ramped up to a flight per
month. Fleet operations and the shuttle workforce
experienced tremendous pressure. Vehicle problems
were not addressed to better ensure safety, resulting
in theChallengerlaunch accident of January, 1986.

After redesigns, the shuttle fleet resumed flight op-

erations in September, 1988. Flight rates never again

matched that of 1985, but the shuttle’s function

shifted from a commercial satellite delivery system

to a research platform for Spacelab missions, a trans-

port vehicle for Phase One astronauts going to Rus-

sia’s Mir space station, and a workhorse for Interna-

tional Space Station (ISS) construction.

Subsequent Events Challenger,Discover y,Atlantis,

andEndeavourfollowedColumbiain turn. As a result

of thermal protection system damage encountered

during launch,Columbiaand another seven-person

crew were lost in February, 2003. After careful re-

view, President George W. Bush directed NASA to

complete the ISS by 2010 and then retire the shuttle

fleet. Shuttles would be replaced by an Apollo-like

Crew Exploration Vehicle, and astronauts would

again leave low Earth orbit, where for thirty years the

shuttle had been constrained to operate.

Further Reading

Harland, David M.The Stor y of the Space Shuttle.New

York: Springer-Praxis, 2004. Covers shuttle ori-

gins through the post-Columbiaaccident period.

Jenkins, Dennis R.Space Shuttle: The Histor y of the Na-

tional Transportation System—The First One Hundred

Missions.New York: D. R. Jenkins, 2001. A techni-

cal text details flight operations.

Reichhardt, Tony.Space Shuttle: The First Twenty

Years—The Astronauts’ Experiences in Their Own

Words. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2002. As this

title suggests, the text provides numerous first-

person accounts of space shuttle experiences.

David G. Fisher

See also Challengerdisaster; Garneau, Marc; Rea-

gan, Ronald; Ride, Sally; Science and technology;

Space exploration.

Special effects

Definition Images and sounds in motion pictures

that are created or manipulated through means

other than filming or recording the thing being

represented

During the 1980’s, both the film and special effects indus-

tries experienced a remarkable revival. The art and technol-

ogy of special effects became increasingly sophisticated and

The Eighties in America Special effects
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