Challenger

[Audio] Space Shuttle Challenger. Challenger. [image] The space shuttle Challenger lifts off from its launch pad NARA and DVIDS Public Domain Archives.

[Audio] The space shuttle challenger was launched on January 28th, 1986. The mission of the space shuttle was to deploy a communications satellite and to provide educational lessons from space. The challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch due to a failure in the O-ring seal. The freezing temperatures of the night before launch had caused the O-ring seal to not expand properly leaking gases and causing the accident. Tragically all crew members died in the accident..

[Audio] The organization that is credited for the challenger was NASA. They had developed and managed the space shuttle program, including flight operations and launch decisions at Kennedy Space Center. Morton Thiokol is a private contractor that designed and manufactured the solid rocket boosters that caused the accident..

[Audio] The crew members of the challenger were Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, and S. Christa McAuliffe the first teacher to fly in space..

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Media Coverage.

[Audio] Just 4 days before the accident Voyager 2 had passed within 50,000 miles from Uranus sending back impressive images..

[Audio] The Challenger's accident forced an overhaul in Aerospace science. NASA increased safety and regulations for future space shuttles and redesigned the solid rocket booster eliminating the O-ring vulnerability..