The Fox News Rundown Extra: The Challenger's Legacy ... 40 Years Later
Jan 31, 2026
Clayton Anderson, retired NASA astronaut and engineer who flew two Shuttle missions, and Bonnie Dunbar, retired astronaut and materials engineer with five Shuttle flights, reflect on the Challenger disaster and its legacy. They discuss remembrance rituals, safety redesigns after failures, the risks of launch and reentry, program decisions around the Shuttle’s end, and paths toward returning to the Moon and reaching Mars.
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Use Failure Modes Analysis To Improve Safety
- After Challenger, NASA performed exhaustive failure modes and effects analyses across the shuttle program to identify critical items.
- They fixed or focused on those items before returning to flight to improve safety.
Root Causes Go Beyond Single Factors
- Dunbar notes the O-ring problem was not solely due to temperature; prior 'blow-bys' had occurred at non-freezing temps.
- The fix targeted the entire joint design and not just the O-ring material.
What Liftoff Actually Feels Like
- Bonnie Dunbar describes liftoff sensations, noting peak accelerations are around three g's and ascent lasts only eight to nine minutes.
- She contrasts shuttle G-loads with higher Gs experienced in jets and Apollo missions.
