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STS-51-L

STS-51-L was the disastrous 25th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle Challenger.

Key facts

Spaceflight.name: STS-51-L
Spaceflight.names_list: Space Transportation System-25
Spaceflight.image: STS-51-L.jpg
Spaceflight.image_caption: Challenger launches at the start of STS-51-L. 73 seconds later, the right SRB aft strut would fail, causing the aerodynamic breakup of the orbiter and the deaths of all 7 crew on board.
Spaceflight.mission_type: Satellite deployment
Spaceflight.operator: NASA
Spaceflight.mission_duration: 6 days and 34 minutes (planned)1 minute and 13 seconds (achieved)
Spaceflight.orbits_completed: Failed to achieve orbit (96 planned)
Spaceflight.landing_mass: (planned)
Spaceflight.crew_size: 7
Spaceflight.launch_date:  UTC (11:38 am EST)
Spaceflight.launch_site: Kennedy, LC-39B
Spaceflight.launch_contractor: Rockwell International
Spaceflight.destroyed: January 28, 1986, 16:39:13 UTC (11:39:13 am EST)
Spaceflight.landing_date: February 3, 1986, 17:12:00 UTC (12:12 pm EST) (planned)
Spaceflight.landing_site: Kennedy, SLF Runway 33 (planned)
Spaceflight.orbit_reference: Geocentric orbit (planned)
Spaceflight.orbit_regime: Low Earth orbit

via Wikipedia infobox

Article

11 sections

Contents

Planned mission
Crew
Backup crew
Crew seat assignments
Ascent failure and disaster
Crew fate
Mission objectives
Mission insignia
See also
References
External links

STS-51-L was the disastrous 25th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle Challenger.

It was planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days and performing a routine satellite deployment. The mission never achieved orbit; a structural failure during its ascent phase 73 seconds after launch from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B on January 28, 1986, destroyed the orbiter and killed all seven crew members—Commander Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and S. Christa McAuliffe. Bob Ebeling, engineer at Morton-Thiokol, manufacturer of the SRBs, recalled having stated about the decision to launch in freezing 18 degree weather: "...we're only qualified to 40 degrees. I said 'what business does anyone even have thinking about 18 degrees, we're in no man's land, we're in a big grey area."