Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion: 24-Yr Anniversary of Disaster

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Challenger STS-51-L Crew: Killed in Challenger Explosion

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uploaded by Jordan Yerman

January 28 is the 24-year anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. I was among the multitudes of schoolchildren who witnessed the space shuttle disaster on television in 1986, as our teacher had wheeled in the TV so we could watch the historic launch, which would have featured the first teacher in space. The video of the Challenger's booster rockets snaking through the air after the explosion would replay on the news for weeks as NASA tried to figure out what went so horribly wrong.

It turned out that the Challenger explosion was caused by a seal failure in one of the rocket boosters during the Space Shuttle's ascent, which caused a rupture in the heat shield.

The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger were:

• Michael John Smith, pilot
• Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space
• Judith Resnik, the first Jewish American astronaut
  
• Dick Scobee, spacecraft commander
• Ronald McNair, a Phd. physicist who would have recorded the first saxophone solo in space
• Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American in space
• Gregory Jarvis, engineer and payload specialist

It's not conclusive whether or not the crew was conscious or alive during the post-disintegration descent: on that point, the Rogers report, released in 1987, was inconclusive. Regardless, the violence of the crew cabin's impact with the ocean was far beyond its capacity to protect those trapped in side.