WASHINGTON — It’s been 39 years since the Challenger space shuttle explosion, one of NASA’s most devastating tragedies.
NASA’s Challenger shuttle exploded 73 seconds after lifting off on Jan. 28, 1986, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The space shuttle was on its 10th mission and was carrying seven people on board.
Millions of Americans, including schoolchildren hoping to see the first teacher in space, witnessed the tragedy on broadcast as the shuttle broke apart shortly after liftoff.
The space agency honored the fallen Challenger crew, as well as other astronauts of Apollo 1 and space shuttle Columbia, during its annual Day of Remembrance ceremony on Jan. 23.
“Today, we honor the heroes of our program who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of exploration. Safety remains our cornerstone as their courage continues to inspire our journey to the stars,” NASA said in an X post on Jan. 23 along with a video honoring the fallen crews.
NASA’s remembrance ceremony began in 2004 and pays homage to three of the agency’s most devastating tragedies: the Apollo I fire, the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. While each tragedy happened within the same calendar week, they occurred decades apart from each other. Due to the clustering of the three dates, NASA sets aside a date every January to commemorate its fallen astronauts.
Challenger’s crew included Commander Dick Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, Mission Specialists Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, and Judith Resnik, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe, who was to become the first teacher in space as part of NASA’s Teacher in Space Project.
The 37-year-old social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to join and teach lessons from space to children around the country. Her involvement generated public interest in the Challenger mission.
Then-President Ronald Regan addressed the nation following the explosion.
While delivering remarks, Reagan quoted aviator and poet John Gillespie Magee’s “High Flight.”
“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God,’” He said at the time.
Why did the Challenger space shuttle explode?
The subsequent investigation revealed that the disaster was caused by the failure of two rubber O-rings, crucial components that were compromised by the unusually cold temperatures on launch day. The tragedy led to a comprehensive overhaul of NASA’s safety culture and decision-making processes, particularly after it was discovered that engineers had raised concerns about the cold weather’s effect on the O-rings.