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On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC).
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Aug 1, 2024 · Learn about the 1986 explosion of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger that killed seven astronauts, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. Find out how cold weather, faulty O-rings, and design flaws led to the tragedy and how NASA and a presidential commission investigated it.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The most prominent victim of the Challenger disaster was Christa McAuliffe, a teacher whose role was to conduct at least two lessons from orbit. Ot...
- The immediate cause of the Challenger disaster was the failure of two rubber O-rings to seal a joint between the two lower segments of the right-ha...
- Space Shuttle Program
- Challenger Disaster
- Rogers Commission
- Aftermath of The Challenger Explosion
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In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)unveiled the world’s first reusable manned spacecraft, known as the space shuttle. Five years later, flights began when the space shuttle Columbiaembarked on a 54-hour mission. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and its main engines, the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit aro...
The mission’s launch from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was delayed for six days due to weather and technical problems. The morning of January 28was unusually cold, and engineers warned their superiors that certain components—particularly the rubber O-rings that sealed the joints of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters—were vulner...
Shortly after the disaster, President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. Headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, the commission included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. Their investigation revealed that t...
After the accident, NASA refrained from sending astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of the shuttle’s features. Flights began again in September 1988 with the successful launching of Discovery. Since then, the space shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, including the repair and maintenance of the Hu...
Learn about the 1986 disaster that killed seven NASA astronauts, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, and the investigation that revealed the cause of the shuttle failure. Find out how the tragedy affected the space program and the nation.
On its tenth flight in January 1986, Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff, killing the seven-member crew of STS-51-L that included Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space.
Jun 18, 2024 · Learn about the crew, mission, documents and resources of the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51L mission that ended in tragedy on January 28, 1986. Find links to reports, transcripts, statements, images and more from NASA and other sources.
Sep 14, 2020 · Seven space explorers, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, lost their lives in the 1986 space shuttle tragedy.
Jan 28, 2021 · The web page recounts the 25th and final mission of space shuttle Challenger, which ended in tragedy on Jan. 28, 1986. It describes the crew, the payloads, the objectives, and the events leading up to the disaster.
