Challenger was one of five National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space shuttle orbiters to fly in space, and the only shuttle as of 2002 lost in an accident. The shuttle was named after a nineteenth-century naval vessel that explored the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The orbiter flew in space nine times between 1983 and 1985 on a number of missions. On its tenth flight, STS-51-L on January 28, 1986, a problem with a solid rocket booster led to an explosion that destroyed Challenger and killed its seven crewmembers. The disaster and resulting investigation grounded the shuttle fleet for more than two and a half years, and led to a number of safety improvements to the shuttle fleet.

Early History

Challenger's development began in the mid-1970s as a structural test article. The vehicle was not originally planned to fly in space, but instead was meant to allow engineers to study how...