The Space Shuttle Challenger arrives at Kennedy Space Center aboard a Boeing 747. Three astronauts had died by fire nineteen years earlier in a capsule test on the ground, but there had been nearly twenty-five years of space flight, fifty-five US missions in a row, without a single in-flight fatality – an almost miraculous record. These were the first deaths to occur during a US space flight. Debris rained into the Atlantic Ocean for more than an hour after the explosion searches revealed no sign of the crew. Tapes salvaged from the wreckage showed that the instant before breakup Smith said “Uh-oh,” but nothing else was heard.
All seven members of the crew were killed. But from below, it looked like an explosion, and the outcome was equivalent.
Later, experts learned that the Challenger had not exploded, although most media continued to say that it had actually, it had disintegrated due to aerodynamic forces after a fire caused by the cold weather’s effect on a poorly-designed joint seal that damaged one of the solid rocket boosters. People who had observed previous launches were puzzled, but cheering from the crowd continued until it was abruptly silenced by an announcement over the loudspeakers: “Obviously a major malfunction”- and, after a pause, “we have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded.” Seventy-three seconds after liftoff, the rockets’ white vapor trail burst into huge billowing plumes branching off at odd angles. Like all space launches, this one was spectacular - the ship rose on a raring tower of flame, and bright rockets arced into a clear blue sky. The crew of the Challenger, from left to right: Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, Pilot Michael Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Commander Francis “Dick” Scobee, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis, Mission Specialist Judith Resnik, and Mission Specialist Ronald McNair. A part of the launch processing system had failed during fueling. There had been another two-hour delay earlier in the morning. The flight had been postponed six times due to bad weather and mechanical issues. The third inspection, shortly before launch, showed the ice had melted onto the launchpad. They had asked for three ice inspections of the rockets and the shuttle Challenger. There were concerns in the Mission Control Center. Students at all grade levels were looking forward to them, and busloads of children had been brought to the viewing area to see the launch, along with many others who were watching from their classrooms via television. Gregory Jarvi, an aerospace engineer, and Christa McAuliffe’s assignment, a teacher from New Hampshire, were payload specialists.Īlthough shuttle launches were considered so routine that network television no longer broadcast them, there was special interest in this one because a teacher - the first private citizen to go into space - was on board.Ĭhrista McAuliffe, the high school social studies teacher, had been chosen from among eleven thousand applicants and was scheduled to teach several lessons during the flight. Commander Richard Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, and Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair were astronauts. The beaches near the Kennedy Space Center were crowded with people who had come to watch the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, which had been postponed on several preceding days to great disappointment.Ī crew of seven was assigned to the spaceship.
January 28, 1986, was an exceptionally cold day in Florida, where freezing weather is rare. The Challenger launches, moments before its destruction.
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