The Challenger Disaster (January 28, 1986)

It’s an image that is forever seared into the memories of most people in North America. Up until this time, since the early Mercury and Gemini space missions in the 60’s, the rockets blasted off the Cape Canavarel launchpads with ‘boring’ regularity. There was no real adrenaline rushes, anymore. Then…

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was a fatal accident in the United States space program that occurred on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard; it was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft in flight. The mission carried the designation STS-51-L and was the tenth flight for the Challenger orbiter and twenty-fifth flight of the Space Shuttle fleet. The crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite and study Halley’s Comet while they were in orbit. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC).

Wikipedia

That Pluto on the Descendant should be warning enough, but why would NASA consult an astrologer?

There are three inconjuncts, but I suspect they have no direct effect on the accident. If I change my mind, I’ll add more later. Needless to say, this caused a lot of controversy, and paused the program for 32 months, while they reviewed what had gone wrong.

Do you think the North Node conjunct the Ascendant @ 6° Taurus contributed to the hubris?