Every Space Disaster Explained in 12 Minutes

A speck of paint. A sensor installed upside down. A rubber ring seven millimeters thick. Behind every space disaster, investigators found one small thing that went wrong, and a report that changed spaceflight. This video goes through every major space disaster, from the ones that only cost money, through the ones that nearly cost lives, to the ones that did: from Hubble's blurry mirror and a Mars probe lost to the wrong units, through Apollo 13 and the worst year on Mir, to Challenger and Columbia. The last five stories are real losses of life. We tell them carefully, with the crews' names, and without showing the moment of the accident. Every number is checked against the investigation reports and sources below. Comparisons like "one fiftieth of a human hair" or "36 times longer than planned" are our own rounded calculations from the published values. In memory of the crews of Apollo 1, Soyuz 11, Challenger and Columbia, and of the people lost at Baikonur on October 24, 1960. #space #spacehistory #nasa 0:00 Intro: one small thing 0:19 Hubble: the blurry telescope (1990) 1:15 Genesis: the upside-down sensor (2004) 2:04 Mars Climate Orbiter: the wrong units (1999) 2:52 Ariane 5: the number too big (1996) 3:53 Starliner: the eight-day trip (2024) 4:51 Mir: the worst year (1997) 5:47 Apollo 13: the successful failure (1970) 6:52 The Nedelin disaster: kept secret (1960) 7:54 Apollo 1: the door that opened inward (1967) 8:51 Soyuz 11: the only deaths in space (1971) 9:52 Challenger: the rubber ring (1986) 10:53 Columbia: the piece of foam (2003) 11:52 Which story was new to you?