Challenger Explodes: Seven Astronauts Die in Space

Seventy-three seconds after liftoff, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean in full view of millions of television viewers, including schoolchildren across the country who had tuned in to watch teacher Christa McAuliffe become the first civilian in space. All seven crew members died on January 28, 1986, in what became the defining disaster of the American space program. The crew—Commander Dick Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, mission specialists Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, and Ronald McNair, payload specialist Gregory Jarvis, and McAuliffe—had boarded Challenger on an unusually cold Florida morning. Temperatures at the launch pad had dropped to 36 degrees Fahrenheit overnight, well below the 53-degree minimum at which the shuttle''s solid rocket booster O-rings had ever been tested. Engineers at Morton Thiokol, the O-ring manufacturer, had argued strenuously against launching, warning that the rubber seals could fail in the cold. NASA managers overruled them. At T+0.678 seconds, cameras recorded a puff of dark smoke emerging from the right solid rocket booster''s aft field joint. The cold had caused the O-ring to lose its elasticity and fail to seal properly. For nearly a minute, solidified aluminum oxides temporarily plugged the gap. Then, at T+58 seconds, wind shear broke the temporary seal. Superheated gases burned through the external fuel tank, and at T+73 seconds, aerodynamic forces tore the shuttle apart at an altitude of 48,000 feet. The crew cabin, largely intact, continued to rise briefly before falling for two and a half minutes into the ocean. Evidence suggests at least some crew members survived the initial breakup. President Reagan''s address to the nation that evening, written by Peggy Noonan, closed with the words "slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." The Rogers Commission investigation, with physicist Richard Feynman memorably demonstrating the O-ring failure with a glass of ice water, revealed that NASA''s organizational culture had suppressed safety concerns under schedule pressure. The shuttle program was grounded for 32 months. The disaster permanently altered how Americans understood the risks of spaceflight.