This Day in Space History

January 28^th, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded only 73 seconds after liftoff.

This was the shuttles 10^th anniversary. The explosion killed all seven members of the crew. Including Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first ordinary American citizen up in space. She was a 37-year-old high school history teacher. McAuliffe earned her spot on board by winning a contest NASA started, called the NASA Teacher in Space Program. She underwent months of training for the mission.  

After a particularly cold January week that us Floridians are still not quite used to, NASA’s engineers postponed the Challengers 10^th flight for six days. After postponing it for almost a week, the shuttle was given the go ahead. Engineers at NASA warned that because of the unusually cold weather, certain parts of the shuttle might be damaged or not working up to their abilities. Specifically, the rubber o-rings that helped seal the joints of the rocket boosters, which could potentially fail at cold temperatures. These warnings were ignored. The Challengers lifted off, and the whole country was traumatized 73 seconds later as bits of the shuttles tumbled into the ocean.

President Ronald Regan put together a special team to figure out what happened with the shuttle. Members of this team included Neil Armstrong and Richard Feynman.

The space shuttle program came to a halt for two years after the Challenger exploded. NASA changed numerous features of their shuttles. The first launch after was Discovery.

Two years after the Challenger exploded, two pieces of the shuttle were found washed ashore on the Florida coast.