10 Space Events That Worried Astronomers

   space  the final frontier  captain james t kirk of the starship  enterprise said it best and in four  words encompassed the high degree of  difficulty in lurking danger associated  with space  travel it's easy to think that planning  a mission to outer space is  straightforward  obvious and easy after all it's not  rocket science  but it literally is and it's fought with  danger  we've heard about the fire from everyone  who was welcome to fact nominal everyone  except the astronauts themselves  today we're looking at the weird  wonderful and dangerous and the most  shocking space events ever number 10  spacex sn8 2020  elon musk is determined to get mankind  to mars  building the largest space launch system  in global history  on the south texan coastline the spacex  sn8 was a 165 foot tall  rocket a trio of engines providing a  half a million pounds of thrust to  propel the 110 rocket  up into the heavens or so we thought  it took off without issue before  shutting down its engines and turning  horizontally a planned sequence  the powered fins on the rocket's belly  kept it on its side during freefall  before suddenly flipping back into a  vertical position  thanks to two of its engines roaring  into life it had almost touched back  down to the ground and completed its  test flight when it exploded into a huge  fireball of heat and smoke  the failed launch isn't a failure after  all with musk hinting at a glass half  full approach it went better than he  planned and gathered valuable data for  future designs  number 9. voshkad 2 1965.  the voshka ii mission has a place in  history as being the first to have  anyone perform a spacewalk  alexi leonov one of the two crew on  board conducted a walk in the vacuum of  space for 12 minutes  the trouble started when the automatic  landing system failed on re-entry and  the duo had to manually pilot the  spacecraft  crashing into a dense forest that  overshot the landing zone by 185 miles  miraculously the pair survived the  landing thanks to their skill  and sheer dumb luck despite that they  had to endure sub-zero temperatures  overnight as scouting parties searched  for them  thankfully they were finally spotted and  rescued despite the near-death  experience they both flew on future  missions representing the hammer and  signal of the motherland  number eight apollo 13. houston we've  had a problem  there's a story behind perhaps the most  famous and most recognizable quote in  american aeronautical history  apollo 13 was to be the third manned  mission to the moon  when an explosion in one of the oxygen  tanks attached to the spacecraft  crippled flight systems and left the  crew  orbiting the moon dead in the water  without even having landed  electrical shorts in a fan circuit had  ignited the insulation wrapped around  the wires  the temperature and pressure inside the  tank increased before a faulty relief  valve failed to vent the pressure  causing it to blow completely new  procedures were being written and tested  in simulators in real time by mission  control  fortunately the 45 hour lifetime in the  lifeboat was able to be stretched to 90  hours thanks to some quick planning and  the crew of three made it home  number 7 x-15 flight 191  1967 the x-15 was a hypersonic aircraft  powered by high  output rockets it was a joint program  between nasa and the u.s air force for  experimental high altitude research and  reconnaissance  pilot michael j adams died in service to  his country on november 15  1967 and was later posthumously awarded  the united states air force astronaut  wings medal  he undocked from the ferry ship without  an issue at an altitude of 45  000 feet boosting up to a dizzying 266  000 feet above the ground  when attempting a wing rocky maneuver so  the onboard camera could view the  horizon  he felt a shudder in the x-15 craft he  aborted the mission and began his  descent back down to earth  at 230 000 feet rapidly changing  pressures put the craft into a spin  at a speed of mach 5 eventually breaking  up at 65 000 feet  number six r16 explosion 1960.  on october 24th 1960 a soviet r-16  rocket  exploded on the launch pad of baikonur  cosmodrome  in what was the single deadliest  accident in aerospace history  72 key military personnel and technical  staff were incinerated by the fast  spreading and  instantly igniting rocket fuel as it  spilled out from the ruptured rocket  mikhail yangle the rocket's chief  designer narrowly escaped death  and was saved by a smoke break the head  of russia's rocket program  miro fond nidolin was not so lucky and  perished while in close  proximity to the launch area needlen had  put pressure on his staff by way of  threats to make sure the launch date  coincided with the anniversary of the  russian revolution  an act to bolster and galvanize the  population's faith in their government  backfire a government that spent the  next 30 years denying the incident even  happened  number 5 the soyuz 1 1967  at the height of the space race in the  1950s between america and the soviets  corners were cut on both sides in the  pursuit of victory  one tragic consequence of these  decisions and actions was vladimir  kormarov  pilot of the soyuz one while making his  way back down to earth the parachute  designed to slow his velocity  failed causing the spacecraft to crash  into the ground and explode in a fiery  inferno  the twist to the tail is that kamarov  knew that the mission had been  compromised and that he would likely not  survive  radio transmissions from the cockpit  recorded a fearful and angry man who  cursed the powers that be  blaming them for his now foreseeable  death he had been tipped off by a  comrade that no less than  203 structural manufacturing faults have  been found  but the decision was made to proceed as  planned  number four apollo 1 1967  guilty of the same hubris and taking  risks with american lives  the u.s nearly ended their moon-bound  apollo space program before it even  started  three astronauts lost their lives  needlessly when design flaws prevented  their successful rescue  a simulated practice launch at cape  canaveral went horribly wrong when a  stray spark ignited the pure oxygen  environment  inside the module of the spacecraft as  the crew suffered agonizing affixiation  and eventual  death from oxygen depletion resulting in  the fire the rescue team had great  difficulty opening and removing the  heavy cumbersome door  preventing them from getting to the men  in time to save them  several engineers had voiced their  safety concerns during the many stages  of mission preparations but they fell on  deaf ears  number three the soyuz 2 1971  the story of the soyuz 2 is a relatively  unique one  in that the victims were the only people  known to have died while in the vacuum  of space  following the u.s winning the race and  successfully putting boots on the lunar  surface  the soviet union was hell-bent on  keeping its pride intact  resolving to launch the world's first  space station  the salyut 1 went into orbit on april 19  1971 and just two months later a team of  three cosmonauts were spirited to the  station aboard the soyuz 2 rocket  they docked and carried scientific  observations before leaving to make the  return  trip to earth on june 30th after landing  the hatch was popped and  all three crew were unresponsive it  wasn't protocol to wear a spacesuit  inside  and before re-entry a faulty air vent  had depressurized the cabin  number 2 columbia 2003  the columbia spacecraft was a seasoned  veteran and her crew  equally as experienced on february 1st  2003 the shuttle had nearly completed  its 28th mission when it suddenly and  violently broke apart on re-entry  sadly all seven brave astronauts on  board were killed  instantly paying the ultimate price in  mankind's search for answers to the big  questions about life in the universe and  our place in it  investigation revealed that the shuttle  was doomed when it left earth 16 days  earlier  a piece of insulating foam had broken  free from the fuel tank and made a small  perforation  damaging the craft's left wing number  one  challenger 1986 the space shuttle  challenger had just taken off  about to make its 10th foray into an  earthbound orbit  it roared into life at cape canaveral  and was accelerating steadily upwards  for 73 seconds  before exploding into a fireball at an  altitude of 48  000 feet nasa had just selected christa  mcauliffe to be part of its teachers in  space program  the high school history teacher had been  picked from 11 000 applicants to  accompany six astronauts on the mission  school children were reading the launch  live from the u.s and around the world  and an occasion  meant to stimulate young minds and  promote a career in the sciences  turned to tragedy in front of their eyes  nasa chose to go ahead with the launch  despite their engineer warning the  agency that freezing temperatures could  damage the rubber o-rings in the rocket  boosters  causing fuel leaks