columbia

2 posts

The Challenger Disaster: Frozen Rockets and Political Snow Jobs

Challenger_explosion

This is part two in a two part series exploring the Challenger disaster. You can find part one here.

With the January 27th launch officially scrubbed and the overnight forecast calling for even more intense cold, the NASA administrators and Morton Thiokol engineers responsible for the Challenger mission faced an increasingly difficult situation. With the launch already rescheduled due to the weather, the shuttle would sit on the launch pad overnight, further chilling the MT built boosters well below the 40°F for which they were launch-certified. Continue reading

Colombia Passes Legislation to Compensate Civil War Victims

Yesterday the Colombian Senate passed landmark legislation aimed at compensating victims of the 50 years of civil war that have devastated the country. The decades of conflict have killed nearly a quarter of a million people and have left more than three million Colombians internally displaced as they have sought to escape violence between rebels, paramilitaries, drug cartels, and government troops. The Victim’s Law aims to give financial compensation for victims of the conflict, as well as allowing for resettlement of displaced Colombians. Continue reading