"Space Shuttle Endeavour Space Shuttle ""Endeavour"" (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-105) is a retired orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational shuttle built. It embarked on its first mission, STS-49, in May 1992 and its 25th and final mission, STS-134, in May 2011. STS-134 was expected to be the final mission of the Space Shuttle program, but with the authorization of STS-135, ""Atlantis"" became the last shuttle to fly. The United States Congress approved the construction of ""Endeavour"" in 1987 to replace ""Challenger"", which was lost in 1986. Structural spares built during the construction of ""Discovery"""
"launch vehicle fire 90 seconds before liftoff. Both cosmonauts aboard landed safely. The only crew fatality during launch occurred on 28 January 1986, when the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff, due to failure of a solid rocket booster seal which caused separation of the booster and failure of the external fuel tank, resulting in explosion of the fuel. All seven crew members were killed. The single pilot of Soyuz 1, Vladimir Komarov was killed when his capsule's parachutes failed during an emergency landing on 24 April 1967, causing the capsule to crash. The crew of seven"
"that took off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:38:00 EST (16:38:00 UTC) on January 28, 1986. The other ""Challenger"" crew members were commander Dick Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ronald McNair, Judith Resnik, and payload specialists Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe. It was destroyed when a flame jet leaking from a solid rocket booster ruptured the liquid hydrogen fuel tank 73 seconds after launch. All seven crew members were killed. Following the ""Challenger"" disaster, examination of the recovered vehicle cockpit revealed that three of the crew members Personal Egress Air Packs were activated: those of Onizuka, mission specialist"
"replaced McBride as the commander while Guy Gardner and Mike Lounge replaced Richards and Leestma, respectively. STS-61-E STS-61-E was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch on March 6, 1986 using ""Columbia"". It was cancelled after the ""Challenger"" disaster. ""Columbia"" was to carry the ASTRO-1 observatory, which would be used to make astronomical observations including observations of Comet Halley. ASTRO-1 consisted of three ultraviolet telescopes mounted on two Spacelab pallets, controlled by the Instrument Pointing System which was first tested on STS-51-F. After the ""Challenger"" disaster, the flight was remanifested as STS-35 and several crew members were replaced."
"But that all came to an end with the tragic loss of the ""Challenger"" (STS-51-L) on January 28, 1986, taking with it seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, who was to have been the first teacher in space. In full view of the world, a faulty O-ring on the right solid rocket booster allowed hot gases to burn through the external fuel tank and cause it to explode, destroying the shuttle in the process. Extensive efforts were made to improve NASA's increasingly careless management practices, and to make the shuttle safer. Flights resumed with the launch of ""Discovery"" in September 1988."
"a result. On January 28, 1986, McAuliffe boarded ""Challenger"" with the other six crew members of STS-51-L. Just 73 seconds into its flight at an altitude of 48,000 feet, the shuttle broke apart, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members. According to NASA, it was in part because of the excitement over her presence on the shuttle that the accident had such a significant effect on the nation. Many schoolchildren were viewing the launch live, and media coverage of the accident was extensive. The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" Accident—also known as the Rogers Commission—was formed"
"that began 30 June 1985. ""Simpson"" was homeported at Naval Station Newport until switching to Naval Station Norfolk on 31 March 1994. ""Simpson"" moved to Naval Station Mayport in July 2001. On 28 January 1986, the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, launched space shuttle mission STS-51L utilizing the orbiter vehicle Challenger at 1138 EST. Escaping propellant combustion products cut into the craft’s solid rocket booster, however, and 73 seconds after launch a massive explosion destroyed Challenger, killing all seven astronauts on board. ""Simpson"" took part in the ensuing search and rescue effort, and subsequently received the Coast"
"STS-61-E STS-61-E was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch on March 6, 1986 using ""Columbia"". It was cancelled after the ""Challenger"" disaster. ""Columbia"" was to carry the ASTRO-1 observatory, which would be used to make astronomical observations including observations of Comet Halley. ASTRO-1 consisted of three ultraviolet telescopes mounted on two Spacelab pallets, controlled by the Instrument Pointing System which was first tested on STS-51-F. After the ""Challenger"" disaster, the flight was remanifested as STS-35 and several crew members were replaced. Both Richards and Leestma were reassigned to STS-28 while McBride left NASA in 1989. Vance Brand"
"in 1981, but the US Congress failed to approve sufficient funds to make ""Freedom"" a reality. A fleet of four shuttles was built: ""Columbia"", ""Challenger"", ""Discovery"", and ""Atlantis"". A fifth shuttle, ""Endeavour"", was built to replace ""Challenger"", which was destroyed in an accident during launch that killed 7 astronauts on 28 January 1986. Twenty-two Shuttle flights carried a European Space Agency sortie space station called Spacelab in the payload bay from 1983 to 1998. The USSR copied the reusable Space Shuttle orbiter, which it called ""Buran"". It was designed to be launched into orbit by the expendable Energia rocket, and"
"Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" blew up nearly immediately above them. USS ""Guam"" recovered many floating pieces of debris from the disaster, including a nose-cone from one of the booster rockets. For her around-the-clock efforts in the recovery mission her crew earned a Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Citation. May through November 1986 she was deployed on MARG 2-86 in the Mediterranean. During this deployment, the ship was damaged while sailing through a tropical storm off the East Coast of the United States while en route to Rota, Spain. Gross command error had decided to sail directly through the storm, rather than go"
"extremely thin atmosphere. If they are large enough, massive pieces traveling at great speed can fall to the Earth before burning up, with the potential to do damage. One of the worst human-piloted space accidents involved the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" which disintegrated in 1986, claiming all seven lives on board. The shuttle disintegrated 73 seconds after taking off from the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Another example is the Space Shuttle ""Columbia"", which disintegrated during a landing attempt over Texas in 2003, with a loss of all seven astronauts on board. The debris field extended from New Mexico to"
"in space, Christa McAuliffe, is followed by a symbolic apple. STS-51-L STS-51-L was the 25th mission of the United States Space Shuttle program, as well as the final flight of the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"". Planned as the first Teacher in Space Project in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days, a structural failure during its ascent phase 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986, from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 killed all seven crew members—Commander Dick Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialists Gregory"
"on 20 March 1987 with a Delta-3920. STS-61-H STS-61-H was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch on June 24, 1986 using ""Columbia"". However, it was cancelled after the ""Challenger"" disaster. Before James Buchli was assigned to STS-61-H, Norman Thagard was the potential Mission Specialist 3 for this flight. The main task of the mission was to bring two commercial satellites into orbit – Palapa B3 and Westar 6S, and military communication satellite - Skynet 4A, The British Skynet and the Indonesian Palapa were supposed to be accompanied by an astronaut from the two countries. After the ""Challenger"""
"killed in the ""Challenger"" accident in 1986. STS-120, launched on 23 October using , carried the ""Harmony"" node, the first pressurised ISS component to be launched since ""Pirs"" in September 2001. Attempts to launch ""Atlantis"" in December on STS-122 were scrubbed, and the launch was delayed to 2008 after ECO sensors in the External Tank failed. Three orbital launch attempts in 2007, involving a Zenit, a Falcon 1, and a Proton failed, and two others, an Atlas V and a GSLV, resulted in partial failures. On 30 January, a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL exploded on the Ocean Odyssey launch platform, seconds"
"""Challenger"" 73 seconds after lift-off, because of the failure of an O-ring seal on ""Challenger""<nowiki>'</nowiki>s right solid rocket booster, which led to the rapid disintegration of the shuttle stack from overwhelming aerodynamic pressures. The seven-member crew was killed when the crew compartment hit the Atlantic Ocean at 207 miles per hour, after two and a half minutes of freefall. Following several days of lengthy delays, ""Challenger"" finally lifted off at 16:38:00 UTC on January 28, 1986. Her three main engines were ignited at T-6.6 seconds, and at T-0 the solid rocket boosters were ignited, lifting the shuttle stack off launchpad"
"destroyed in one of the US space program's more notorious accidents. The Atlas-Centaur was launched on March 26, 1987 into a pouring Florida thunderstorm. At about 30 seconds into the flight, the Atlas was struck by lightning and the resulting static discharge sent an erroneous signal to the guidance computer, causing the rocket to pitch over and break apart from structural stress. The booster exploded and showered burning debris onto LC-36B, which was barely visible through the heavy rain. As a result of this easily preventable disaster, NASA issued strict weather guidelines for all launches. In the late 1990s, FLTSATCOM"
"resulted in the failure of the walkway. It was documented that even the single-rod system would have barely supported the expected load and would not have met Kansas City Building Code standards. The final analysis of the damage had several conclusions reported including: The Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter ""Challenger"" (OV-099) (mission STS-51-L) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. Disintegration of the vehicle began after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The Space"
"STS-51-L STS-51-L was the 25th mission of the United States Space Shuttle program, as well as the final flight of the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"". Planned as the first Teacher in Space Project in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days, a structural failure during its ascent phase 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986, from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 killed all seven crew members—Commander Dick Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialists Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe—and destroyed the orbiter. Immediately after the"
"1986 and ""Columbia"" in 2003. In 1986 the LES would have pulled it clear of the booster explosion; and on top of its launcher it would have been safely out of the way of the falling debris that fatally damaged the thermal insulation on ""Columbia"". These considerations led the study to conclude that Team 2 had met the safety target with the HL-42: ""The improvement of crew safety (probability of crew survival) to at least 0.999 from the 0.98 of the Space Shuttle was met or exceeded by the new vehicles of Options 2 and 3."" The HL-42 drew indirectly"
"the in-flight explosion of one of the shuttles in the ""Challenger"" disaster during 1986 showed that it was too complex for routine use as a satellite launch platform. Aérospatiale went on to develop more capable versions of the Ariane, which took much of the business of space launches away from the Americans during the 1990s. During 1991, the company participated in the construction of the chassis of the Bugatti EB110 Supercar. The chassis, built completely of carbon fibre, was considered to be revolutionary for the time, being very lightweight for its size and function. In 1992, German defense company DaimlerBenz"
"in orbit using expendable launch vehicles rather than the shuttle. In August 1986, President Reagan also announced that the shuttle would no longer carry commercial satellite payloads. After a 32-month hiatus, the next shuttle mission, STS-26, was launched on September 29, 1988. Although changes were made by NASA after the ""Challenger"" accident, many commentators have argued that the changes in its management structure and organizational culture were neither deep nor long-lasting. After the Space Shuttle ""Columbia"" disaster in 2003, attention once again focused on the attitude of NASA management towards safety issues. The ""Columbia"" Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) concluded that"
"with the last occurring on 17 November 1982. The complex was then refurbished to accommodate the Martin Marietta Titan 34D. Seven Titan 34Ds were launched between 20 June 1983, and 6 November 1988. SLC-4E hosted one of the most dramatic launch accidents in US history when a Titan 34D carrying a KH-9 satellite exploded just above the pad on April 18, 1986. The enormous blast showered the launch complex with debris and toxic propellant, resulting in extensive damage. 16 months after the accident, the pad was back in commission when it hosted a successful launch of a KH-11 satellite. The"
"free flight. VSS ""Enterprise"" was piloted by Peter Siebold and Michael Alsbury. According to the NTSB briefing, SpaceShipTwo dropped from the mother ship and fired its new hybrid rocket engine normally. About eleven seconds later, the space plane violently broke apart, substantially giving the appearance of an explosion, and creating a long debris field. Witnesses reported seeing a parachute before the aircraft crashed. The co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed in the crash, whereas the pilot, Peter Siebold, survived with serious injuries and was transported to Antelope Valley Hospital in nearby Lancaster. The carrier aircraft, VMS ""Eve"", landed safely. Despite considerable"
"Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" in its 11th mission (1984). However, in the prime universe the ""Challenger"" exploded in its 10th mission two years later. One viewer noted this as yet another sign that the parallel universe is more technologically advanced than ours, as they began their space program earlier than ours. On its initial American broadcast on October 15, 2009, an estimated 5.78 million viewers watched ""Dream Logic"", helping it earn a 3.5/6 ratings share among all households and a 2.2/6 ratings share in the important 18–49 demographic. AOL TV writer Jane Boursaw wrote, ""The whole storyline with the creepy dual-personality"
"Space Shuttle, which would be responsible for all government and commercial launches. Production of Delta, Atlas-Centaur, and Titan 34D had ended. The ""Challenger"" disaster of 1986 and the subsequent halt of Shuttle operations changed this policy, and President Ronald Reagan announced in December of that year that the Space Shuttle would no longer launch commercial payloads, and NASA would seek to purchase launches on expendable vehicles for missions that did not require crew or Shuttle support. McDonnell Douglas, at that time the manufacturer of the Delta family, signed a contract with the U.S. Air Force in 1987 to provide seven"
"STS-61-H STS-61-H was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch on June 24, 1986 using ""Columbia"". However, it was cancelled after the ""Challenger"" disaster. Before James Buchli was assigned to STS-61-H, Norman Thagard was the potential Mission Specialist 3 for this flight. The main task of the mission was to bring two commercial satellites into orbit – Palapa B3 and Westar 6S, and military communication satellite - Skynet 4A, The British Skynet and the Indonesian Palapa were supposed to be accompanied by an astronaut from the two countries. After the ""Challenger"" disaster the deployment of commercial satellites by"
"Space Shuttle and retrieved by another Space Shuttle after a failure, was launched by the Long March 3 in 1990 as the first foreign payload on a Chinese rocket. However, major setbacks occurred in 1992–1996. The Long March 2E was designed with a defective payload fairing, which collapsed when faced with the rocket's excessive vibration. After just seven launches, the Long March 2E destroyed the Optus B2 and Apstar 2 satellites and damaged AsiaSat 2. The Long March 3B also experienced a catastrophic failure in 1996, veering off course shortly after liftoff and crashing into a nearby village. At least"
"exploded in midair after takeoff from what was then known as NAAS Chincoteague. All eleven occupants of the aircraft died. On October 23, 1995, the maiden flight of a Conestoga 1620 rocket failed 46 seconds after liftoff, resulting in disintegration. EER Space Systems, Conestoga's manufacturer, concluded that low frequency noise from an unknown source upset the guidance system on the rocket causing it to order course corrections when none were needed. The rocket went off course when its first stage steering mechanism ran out of hydraulic fluid and became inoperable. After this failure, the Conestoga program was terminated, and EER"
"1985. For a period from December 4, 1985 to May 11, 1986, Graham served as Acting Administrator of NASA following the resignation of James M. Beggs. It was on his watch as Acting Administrator that the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" was launched in frigid weather, causing o-rings to fail and destroy the ship. Graham left NASA on October 1, 1986 to become Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). On October 16, 1986, he was sworn in as Director of OSTP and concurrently as Science Adviser to President Reagan, positions he held until June 1989, when"
"STS-61-F STS-61-F was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch on 15 May 1986 using ""Challenger"". It was cancelled after ""Challenger"" was destroyed earlier that year. The main objective of STS-61-F was to deploy the ""Ulysses"" solar probe, which would travel to Jupiter and use it as a gravitational slingshot in order to be placed into polar orbit around the Sun. This mission would have marked the first use of the Centaur-G liquid-fueled payload booster, which would also be used on the subsequent mission to send the Galileo probe in orbit around Jupiter. Due to the use of"
"tiles. The first Shuttle mission, STS-1, had a protruding gap filler that diverted hot gas into the right wheel well on re-entry, resulting in a buckling of the right main landing gear door. While the system was ""developed"" within the original cost and time estimates given to President Richard M. Nixon in 1971, the operational costs, flight rate, payload capacity, and reliability by the time of the February 2003 ""Columbia"" accident proved to be much worse than originally anticipated. A year before STS-1's April 1981 launch, ""The Washington Monthly"" accurately forecast many of the Shuttle's issues, including an overambitious launch"
"STS-51-L Mission timeline STS-51-L Mission timeline is a detailed timeline of events from the ignition of ""Challenger's"" main engines to the remote destruction of the two solid rocket boosters, and includes a transcript of crew conversations from the cockpit voice recorder on board the Orbiter. STS-51-L was the twenty-fifth flight in the American Space Shuttle program, and marked the first time a civilian had flown aboard the Space Shuttle. The mission used Space Shuttle ""Challenger"", which lifted off from launch pad 39B on January 28, 1986, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission ended in disaster following the destruction of"
"Carter, a Mission Specialist on this flight, was killed in a commercial plane crash on 5 April 1991 while training to fly on STS-42. STS-33 was originally scheduled to launch on 20 November, but was delayed because of problems with the integrated electronics assemblies which controlled the ignition and separation of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters. STS-33 was the third night launch of the Space Shuttle program, and the first since shuttle flights resumed in 1988 following the ""Challenger"" disaster of 1986. During the mission, ""Discovery"" deployed a single satellite, USA-48 (NSSDC ID 1989-090B). Experts believe that this was a"