On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff due to the failure of an O-Ring in one of the two solid rocket boosters. This, the second of NASA’s spaceflight disasters, cost the lives of seven astronauts – Commander Dick Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialists Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe. The launch was the 25th of the Space Shuttle Program and was watched by millions of school children across the country, as one of the crew was Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space.
I was in first grade at the time of this accident and have previously written on my experience of the day and Innocence, 30 Years Later.
The flags of the United States and NASA are flown today in honor of the Challenger astronauts.
Cruesbreck Flags 