30th Anniversary of Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster: NASA Day of Remembrance

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster in which NASA’s orbiter exploded 73 seconds after launch, claiming the lives of all seven crew members. The tragic demise of the spacecraft and its crew on 28 January 1986 was caused by the failure of a seal in the shuttle’s right solid rocket booster, as a result of unexpectedly cold weather on the launchpad. Each year, NASA marks a Day of Remembrance to honour all of the lives lost in space exploration. A trio of tragedies all fall within the same week - the Columbia space shuttle disintegrated on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on 1 February 2003, while the crew of Apollo 1 perished in a fire on the launchpad on 27 January 1967 during a launch rehearsal test.