STS-51-L
Back row (L-R): Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik. Front row (L-R): Michael J. Smith, Francis "Dick" Scobee, Ronald McNair.
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| Mission type | Satellite deployment | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | NASA | ||||
| Mission duration | 73 seconds (6 days 34 minutes planned) |
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| Distance travelled | 29 kilometres (18 mi) | ||||
| Orbits completed | Failed to achieve orbit (96 planned) |
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| Spacecraft properties | |||||
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Challenger | ||||
| Launch mass | 121,778 kilograms (268,475 lb) | ||||
| Landing mass | 90,584 kilograms (199,704 lb) (planned) |
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| Payload mass | 21,937 kilograms (48,363 lb) | ||||
| Crew | |||||
| Crew size | 7 | ||||
| Members |
Francis R. Scobee Michael J. Smith Ellison S. Onizuka Judith A. Resnik Ronald E. McNair Gregory B. Jarvis S. Christa McAuliffe |
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| Start of mission | |||||
| Launch date | January 28, 1986, 16:38:00 UTC | ||||
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39B | ||||
| End of mission | |||||
| Landing date | Planned: February 3, 1986, 17:12 UTC | ||||
| Landing site | Kennedy (planned) | ||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||
| Reference system | Geocentric | ||||
| Regime | Low Earth | ||||
| Perigee | 285 kilometres (177 mi) | ||||
| Apogee | 295 kilometres (183 mi) | ||||
| Inclination | 28.45 degrees | ||||
| Period | ~90.4 minutes | ||||
| Epoch | Planned | ||||
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STS-51-L was the 25th flight of the American Space Shuttle program, and disastrous final mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger, which lifted-off from Launch Complex 39-B, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on January 28, 1986. The mission ended in catastrophic failure with the destruction of Challenger, starting at 73 seconds after lift-off, and the death of all seven crew members. The Rogers Commission determined that the cause of the destruction was due to the failure of an O-ring seal on the starboard Solid Rocket Booster (SRB).
The tenth mission for Challenger, STS-51-L was scheduled to deploy the second in a series of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, carry out the first flight of the Shuttle-Pointed Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN-203) / Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable in order to observe Halley's Comet, and carry out several lessons from space as part of the Teacher in Space Project and Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP). The flight marked the first American orbital mission to involve in-flight fatalities. It was also the first American human spaceflight mission to launch and fail to reach space; the first such mission in the world had been the Soviet Soyuz 18a mission, in which the two crew members had survived. Gregory Jarvis was originally scheduled to fly on the previous shuttle flight (STS-61-C), but he was reassigned to this flight and replaced by Congressman Bill Nelson.
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