Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster, Please Help!?

Question

Can anyone give me a Summary of financial and human losses for this event
or some good resources besides wikipedia?

Answer 1

That is a tall order:

I suggest you go to NASA wesbsite and look it up there.

Answer 2

What financial losses are we talking about, exactly? Actually, I would say it was more of a windfall.

The manned space program does exactly two things:

1) It transfers money from the tax payer's pocket into the pockets of aerospace companies. That is called a subsidy.

2) It pretends to do some science so it does not look to either the world or the tax payer that the US is propping up its aerospace program with a $15 billion tax gift every year.

This is the ONLY visible purpose of the whole shuttle/ISS program. For sure there ain't no science there that couldn't have been done BETTER for a few percent of the total cost if there had been an incentive other than political porking.

The human losses are, well, part of spaceflight. You can not expect to survive all the time when you strap yourself to a giant firecracker. The world just don't work that way. This is not a defense of the obviously failed NASA governance structures which are responsible for both shuttle disasters.

Far from it. But even if everything would run absolutely smoothly, there would be, and will be, tragedies. Everyone who gets to fly on these things knows it and takes a calculated risk. The betrayal of the crews was not that there were risks, but that they were not properly handled. In time we will learn to do things right. But some risk will stay with us all the time.

Answer 3

Difficult to summarise the financial losses. A multi-million dollar orbiter and re-usable solid rocket booster housings were lost (the external tank was also destroyed in the explosion, of course, but that was an expendable component and would have been lost even if Challenger had reached orbit safely), for which precise figures are likely available, but then there was estimated loss of revenue from potential satellite launch customers, the expenses of the accident investigation, and other so-called intangibles.

In terms of human cost, seven people died and many more suffered the loss of friends and family, or carry guilt over the accident.

Answer 4

Try here....
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/table-of-contents.html

Financials are not likely available for public access.