The Challenger Disaster on BBC Newsround

The launch of any space ship says a lot about human endeavour, engineering, about science and discovery. Watching the launch of four astronauts the other day was as incredible to see as every other launch, even if the fear factor of something going wrong is always there.

I always remember as an 11 year old watching BBC Newsround in January 1986 as the children’s news programme broke the news from just minutes before of the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding just over a minute after launch.

The BBC allowed Newsround to break the news because it had been following one of the crew members, a teacher, for months as she prepared to go into space. I remember both me and my younger brother rushing into the kitchen to tell my mum what had happened.

But it was the following days episode that became one of those moments that probably led to me entering into the health and safety profession many years later. The programme, presented by the great John Craven, tried to work out why the shuttle had exploded.

About 20 years ago, I was lucky enough to bump into John in a hotel bar in Birmingham, where I was staying overnight for work. I told him that he was one of my inspirations, that Newsround made news interesting. I told him that it was the programme the day after the disaster that was one of the moments that led to me entering a career in health and safety. He smiled, bought me a pint and disappeared to his room. To get the chance to thank him was a privilege.

I have been interested in why things go wrong ever since, and have read widely on disasters like the Hillsborough Disaster, like 9-11, like plane crashes, like Grenfell, that to this day fascinate me, and help me investigate work related accidents in my career.

I strongly believe that everyone should go home after their shift in the same condition in which they started it. That day in 1986, seven astronauts went to work, but never went home. The cause was later found to have been the failure of two rubber O-rings used to seal a joint between the two lower segments of the right-hand solid rocket booster. This failure was due to severe cold, and it opened a path for hot exhaust gas to escape from inside the booster during the shuttle's ascent.

To those aboard Artemis II, god speed and come home safely.