On what date did the space shuttle Challenger explode?
On January 28, 1986, the American shuttle orbiter Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff, bringing a devastating end to the spacecraft’s 10th mission. The disaster claimed the lives of all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire who had been selected to join the mission and teach lessons from space to schoolchildren around the country. It was later determined that two rubber O-rings, which had been designed to separate the sections of the rocket booster, had failed due to cold temperatures on the morning of the launch.
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83 Comments
Robert Snow
I was watching the liftoff and then 😪
cgrhm
I was walking through the front door of my apartment in college at the exact moment it happened. My roommate had it on tv and was screaming.
Teryann58 Mapes
It was such a tragedy 😢
Kay Agnew
teresalangrel, my boyfriend, husband, now deceased had some sort of premonition, he jumped out of bed, went to the bathroom and immediately turned on the TV, which wasn't his routine, and it had just happened, he also had a feeling about where they should search for any remains there might be, and that was where they eventually found some, I can't remember what it was.
Kevin Dale Streets
Couldn't remember the date, but I remembered the year. That helped!
Mama B
I lived in Florida at the time. It was a beautiful, brisk morning.
blaznee
Wrong about the year, I was in school at the time and I graduated in 85
steve
Having seen the explosion, and feeling very shaken up about it, I took some comfort in the probability that the explosion killed the astronauts instantly. It was equally devastating to learn that the main crew compartment was relatively intact, and that the crew did not die until they hit the water at ~150mph. R.I.P. Brave souls, all.
Leona
I still remember watching this all unfold while in the middle of class in high school. It was so devistating to watch.
robertemmonshagadon
I will never forget that day. I lost my daughter Sarah to sids. I didn't know about the shuttle for 3 days after.
Dinah Lattin Garrison
So sad to watch!
I would take my school class to the Challenger Learning Center every year..awesome learning experience for everyone 🇺🇸🚀
svlindsey
I was doing a technical consultant visit to an Air Force weather unit and were watching the liftoff with the weather technicians. We had been discussing the unusually cold that covered the east coast and had expressed worries about the launch due to weather conditions. It was horrifying to watch the debris fall to earth
Gail Thomas
That was so sad.
itsjkf
i was at the corner of shaw/fresno
jhummel
I was stationed at Ft.Campbell,Ky. We were all in the ready room watching it and we were so shocked and in disbelieve.
allen s dohner
I was at work in southern California when the wife of one my coworkers called in with the news. We didn't have a television set so I called my wife, she turned on the tv and said that no one could survive an explosion like that. The rest of the day was a blur-everyone was numbed. I got home and watched the news-it was the only story. My wife taught at a community college and said that Greg Jarvis, one of the astronauts, had taken some classes there in her department and a lot of her colleagues remembered him. A friend of mine had worked on the space shuttle when it was being developed in the 1970s and this hit him pretty hard even though he had retired from Rockwell in 1982. Everybody seems to know someone who was involved with the space shuttle. This is one of those days that is right up there with the Kennedy assassination, 9/11, or any other tragedy.