LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Space Shuttle Challenger
built 255 days ago
On 28 January 1986, the American space program suffered one of its greatest tragedies when the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 76 seconds into the mission, killing all seven crew members. Most people believe this disaster was caused by a design flaw in the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters that was exacerbated by near-freezing air temperatures at the time of launch. While those problems were significant causes, there were a number of other little-known factors that ... contibuted to the tragic loss of Challenger on the 25th flight of the Shuttle program. Had any one of these factors not existed on that fateful day, the disaster might well have been avoided.
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The Space Shuttle Challenger 51-L was the 25th mission in NASA's STS program. On Jan. 28, 1986, STS 51-L exploded shortly after liftoff, destroying the vehicle and all of its seven crew members.
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The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster took place when Challenger, a Space Shuttle operated by NASA, broke apart 73 seconds into its flight leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, United States at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC) on January 28, 1986. Disintegration of the shuttle stack began 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The seal failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it filled, allowing a flare to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent attachment hardware and external fuel tank. The SRB breach flare led to the separation of the right-hand SRB and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter.
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It's been twenty years since the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded only 73 seconds after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The problem was found to be due to a faulty O-ring seal, which reacted unexpectedly to the cold at take-off. Francis R. Scobee (shuttle commander), Gregory B. Jarvis, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Michael J. Smith, and Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian astronaut, all died in the explosion. It took nearly three years for NASA to send astronauts into space again.
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The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during the launch of mission 51-L on January 28, 1986. An O-Ring seal on the right solid rocket booster began leaking due to a combination of poor inspection and low environmental temperature at the launch site, spraying hot gasses onto its attachment point to the main fuel tank and causing structural failure 73 seconds after liftoff. The booster rocket broke free and slammed into the external fuel tank, rupturing it. The shuttle stack was then ripped apart by aerodynamic forces, and the external tank's fuel ignited into a fireball. Although there is some small evidence that members of the crew may have survived the Shuttle's initial breakup, cabin pressurization was lost and at the altitude where the breakup took place all crewmembers would have died from lack of oxygen before the free-falling crew cabin struck the Atlantic.
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On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was launched for the last time. The decision to launch the Challenger was not simple. Certainly no one dreamed that the Shuttle would explode less than two minutes after lift-off. Much has been said and written about the decision to launch. Was the decision to launch correct? How was the decision made?
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Space Shuttle Challenger