Katherine Johnson: Hidden Figures Nasa mathematician dies at 101

Pioneering African-American Nasa mathematician Katherine Johnson has died at the age of 101.

Nasa announced her death on Twitter, saying it was celebrating her life and honouring “her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers”.

Source: Katherine Johnson: Hidden Figures Nasa mathematician dies at 101

April 11, 1970 Houston, We’ve had a Problem – Today in History

For four days and nights, the three-man crew lived aboard the cramped, freezing Aquarius, a landing module intended to support a crew of 2 for only 1½ days

Source: April 11, 1970  Houston, We’ve had a Problem – Today in History

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finding peace. | I didn’t have my glasses on….

Bob Ebeling with his daughter Kathy and his wife, Darlene.

Bob Ebeling spent a third of his life consumed with guilt about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. But at the end of his life, his family says, he was finally able to find peace.

“It was as if he got permission from the world,” says his daughter Leslie Ebeling Serna. “He was able to let that part of his life go.”

Ebeling died Monday at age 89 at in Brigham City, Utah, after a long illness, according to his daughter Kathy Ebeling.

Hundreds of NPR readers and listeners helped Ebeling overcome persistent guilt in the weeks before his death. They sent supportive e-mails and letters after the January story marking the 30th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy.

Ebeling was one of five booster rocket engineers at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol who tried to stop the 1986 Challenger launch. They worried that cold temperatures overnight — the forecast said 18 degrees — would stiffen the rubber o-ring seals that prevent burning rocket fuel from leaking out of booster joints.

“We all knew if the seals failed, the shuttle would blow up,” said…

Source: finding peace. | I didn’t have my glasses on….

The Space Shuttle Tragedy

January 28th 1986

The Space Shuttle Tragedy

This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of modern history’s most dramatic disasters. The Space Shuttle Challenger and her seven-member crew set out on a space voyage that seemed routine for NASA on January 28th 1986, when a ruptured O-ring in the right solid rocket boaster caused a massive explosion, just 73 seconds after the Challenger was launched. In the midst of the break up of…

Source: What happened this month in history. | If It Happened Yesterday, It’s History