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The glass of ice water that froze the O‑ring and doomed Challenger
A rubber O‑ring stiffens in ice water during a Senate hearing - did they stop the launch in time?
The glass of ice water that froze the O‑ring and doomed Challenger
In this episode, we follow the lead-up to the Challenger launch and the decisions, data, and temperatures that shaped it. We map the engineers’ warnings, the management reversal, and the moment a simple demonstration made the stakes visible: did institutional optimism beat the physics?
Date: January 28, 1986
Person: Richard Feynman
Event: Senate hearing demonstration with glass of ice water and O‑ring
Temperature: 28 degrees…
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