The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January
28, 1986, when Space Shuttle
Challenger (mission STS-51-L)
broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew
members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the
coast of central Florida
at 11:38 EST
(16:38 UTC).
Disintegration of the entire vehicle began after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket
booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The O-ring failure caused a breach
in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized hot gas from within the solid
rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB attachment
hardware and external fuel
tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand SRBs aft
attachment and the structural
failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces
promptly broke up the orbiter.
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