Challenger Shuttle Mission 10: STS-51-L
10th Challenger Mission
25th Space Shuttle Mission
Start of Mission: January 28, 1986 at 11:38 am , Kennedy Space Center, Florida
End of Mission: January 28, 1986, 11:39 am, 73 seconds after liftoff (in the air at Kennedy)
Mission duration: 1 minutes, 13 seconds
Distance traveled: 18 miles
Orbits of Earth: 0
Crew Size: 7
Commander: Francis R. Scobee
Pilot: Michael J. Smith
Mission Specialist 1: Ellison S. Onizuka
Mission Specialist 2: Judith A. Resnik
Mission Specialist 3: Ronald E. McNair
Payload Specialist 1: S. Christa McAuliffe
Payload Specialist 2: Gregory B. Jarvis
Mission Facts:
First time a non-government civilian, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, had flown aboard the space shuttle
The Rogers Commission, an investigation team, determined that the cause of the destruction was due to the failure of an O-ring seal on one of the solid rocket booster (SRB).
This was the first American orbital mission to involve fatalities
After this failure, the space shuttle program was on hiatus for 32 months
The mission was delayed for several days due to various issues
The State of the Union address by President Reagan was supposed to take place that evening, but he cancelled the address and spoke to the nation about the tragedy instead.