STS-51-L

Crew

Dick Scobee

Status: Lost In Flight
5/19/1939 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/6/1984
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Francis Richard Scobee was an American pilot and astronaut. He was killed commanding the Space Shuttle Challenger, which suffered catastrophic booster failure during launch of the STS-51-L mission.

Michael J. Smith

Status: Lost In Flight
4/30/1945 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 1/28/1986
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Michael John Smith was an American astronaut—pilot of the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the STS-51-L mission. All seven crew members died.

Gregory Jarvis

Status: Lost In Flight
8/24/1944 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 1/28/1986
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Gregory Bruce Jarvis (August 24, 1944 – January 28, 1986) was an American engineer who died during the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as Payload Specialist for Hughes Aircraft.

Christa McAuliffe

Status: Lost In Flight
9/2/1948 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 1/28/1986
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Sharon Christa McAuliffe (born Sharon Christa Corrigan; September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire and one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Ronald McNair

Status: Lost In Flight
10/21/1950 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 2/3/1984
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Ronald Erwin McNair was an American physicist and NASA astronaut. He died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists. He is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and two children. His kids were Joy Charey Mcnair (Daughter) and Reginald Ervin Mcnair (son).

Judith Resnik

Status: Lost In Flight
4/5/1949 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 8/30/1984
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Judith Arlene Resnik was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut, who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during the launch of mission STS-51-L.

Recognised while still a child for her "intellectual brilliance",[1] Resnik went on to work for RCA as an engineer on NASA missile and radar projects, was a senior systems engineer for Xerox Corporation, and published research on special purpose integrated circuitry, before she was recruited by NASA to the astronaut program as a mission specialist at age 28. While training on the astronaut program, she developed software and operating procedures for NASA missions.[2] She was also a pilot and made research contributions to biomedical engineering, as a research fellow of biomedical engineering at the National Institutes of Health.

Initially planning to be a concert pianist, Resnik had turned down a place at the Juilliard School of Music, choosing instead to study mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University after being one of only 16 girls in the United States to have attained 100% scores in her SAT exams at the time. She went on to graduate from Carnegie Institute of Technology in electrical engineering, before graduating with a Ph.D. magna cum laude in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland.

Resnik was the second American woman in space, and the fourth woman in space worldwide, logging 145 hours in orbit. She was also the first Jewish American in space, and the first Jewish woman of any nationality in space. The IEEE Judith Resnik Award for space engineering is named in her honor.

Ellison Onizuka

Status: Lost In Flight
6/24/1946 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 1/24/1985
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Ellison Shoji Onizuka (鬼塚 承次 Onizuka Shōji) was an American astronaut from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, on which he was serving as Mission Specialist for mission STS-51-L. He was the first Asian American and the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach space.

Rocket

Space Shuttle Challenger OV-099 – Lockheed Space Operations Company

• Family: Space Shuttle
• Length: 38.1 m
• Diameter: 8.4 m
• Launch Mass: 2040 T
• Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 24400 kg

The Space Shuttle Challenger OV-099 was manufactured by Lockheed Space Operations Company with the first launch on 1983-04-04. Space Shuttle Challenger OV-099 has 9 successful launches and 1 failed launches with a total of 10 launches. Space Shuttle Challenger was the second orbiter of NASA’s space shuttle program to be put into service following Columbia. Its maiden flight, STS-6, started on April 4, 1983. It launched and landed nine times before breaking apart 73 seconds into its tenth mission, STS-51-L, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members, including a civilian school teacher. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed in flight, the other being Columbia in 2003.

Agency

Lockheed Space Operations Company – LSOC

• Type: Commercial
• Abbreviation: LSOC
• Country: USA