STS-51-L

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Failed 1986 American crewed spaceflight

title: "STS-51-L" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1986-in-spaceflight", "space-accidents-and-incidents-in-the-united-states", "space-shuttle-missions", "space-program-fatalities", "space-shuttle-challenger-disaster", "spacecraft-launched-in-1986", "1986-in-florida", "january-1986", "20th-century-rocket-launches", "rocket-launch-failures", "space-missions-that-ended-in-failure"] description: "Failed 1986 American crewed spaceflight" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-L" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Failed 1986 American crewed spaceflight ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox spaceflight"]

Field	Value
name	STS-51-L
names_list	Space Transportation System-25
image	STS-51-L.jpg
image_caption	Challenger launches at the start of STS-51-L. 73 seconds later, the right SRB aft strut would fail, causing the aerodynamic breakup of the orbiter and the deaths of all 7 crew on board.
mission_type	Satellite deployment
operator	NASA
mission_duration	6 days and 34 minutes (planned)
1 minute and 13 seconds (achieved)
distance_travelled	29 km
orbits_completed	Failed to achieve orbit (96 planned)
spacecraft
launch_mass	1217990 kg
landing_mass	90584 kg (planned)
payload_mass	21937 kg
crew_size	7
crew_members
launch_date	UTC (11:38 am EST)
launch_site	Kennedy, LC-39B
launch_contractor	Rockwell International
destroyed	January 28, 1986, 16:39:13 UTC (11:39:13 am EST)
landing_date	February 3, 1986, 17:12:00 UTC (12:12 pm EST) (planned)
landing_site	Kennedy, SLF Runway 33 (planned)
orbit_reference	Geocentric orbit (planned)
orbit_regime	Low Earth orbit
orbit_periapsis	285 km
orbit_apoapsis	295 km
orbit_inclination	28.45°
orbit_period	90.40 minutes
apsis	gee
instruments
insignia	STS-51-L.svg
insignia_caption	STS-51-L mission patch
crew_photo	Challenger flight 51-l crew.jpg
crew_photo_caption	Back row: Onizuka, McAuliffe, Jarvis and Resnik
Front row: Smith, Scobee and McNair
programme	Space Shuttle program
previous_mission	STS-61-C (24)
next_mission	STS-26 →
Cancelled: STS-61-E
::

STS-51-L was the disastrous 25th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle Challenger.

It was planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days and performing a routine satellite deployment. The mission never achieved orbit; a structural failure during its ascent phase 73 seconds after launch from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B on January 28, 1986, destroyed the orbiter and killed all seven crew members—Commander Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and S. Christa McAuliffe. Bob Ebeling, engineer at Morton-Thiokol, manufacturer of the SRBs, recalled having stated about the decision to launch in freezing 18 degree weather: ::quote "...we’re only qualified to 40 degrees. I said ‘what business does anyone even have thinking about 18 degrees, we’re in no man’s land, we’re in a big grey area." ::

Immediately after the failure, President Ronald Reagan convened the Rogers Commission to determine the cause of the explosion. The failure of an O-ring seal on the starboard Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was determined to have caused the shuttle to break up in flight. Space Shuttle flights were suspended for 32 months while the O-rings and other hazards that could have destroyed the vehicle on following missions were addressed. Shuttle missions resumed in September 1988 with STS-26.

Planned mission

The tenth mission for Challenger, STS-51-L, was scheduled to deploy the second in a series of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS-B), carry out the first flight of the "Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy" (SPARTAN-203) / Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable in order to observe Halley's Comet, and carry out several lessons from space as part of the Teacher in Space Project and Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP). The flight marked the first American orbital mission to involve in-flight fatalities. It was also the first American human spaceflight mission to launch and fail to reach space; the first such mission in the world had been the Soviet Soyuz 18a mission, in which the two crew members had survived. Gregory Jarvis was originally scheduled to fly on the previous shuttle flight (STS-61-C), but he was reassigned to this flight and replaced by Congressman Clarence W. "Bill" Nelson.

Crew

| terminology = Astronaut | position1 = Commander | crew1_up = Francis R. "Dick" Scobee Second and last space mission | position2 = Pilot | crew2_up = Michael J. Smith Only space mission | position3 = Mission Specialist 1 | crew3_up = Ellison S. Onizuka Second and last space mission | position4 = Mission Specialist 2 Flight Engineer | crew4_up = Judith A. Resnik Second and last space mission | position5 = Mission Specialist 3 | crew5_up = Ronald E. McNair Second and last space mission | position6 = Payload Specialist 1 | crew6_up = S. Christa McAuliffe Only space mission | position7 = Payload Specialist 2 | crew7_up = Gregory B. Jarvis Only space mission | details7_up = Hughes Space and Communications

Backup crew

Crew seat assignments

This seating assignment chart depicts what would have happened if the mission had been performed as planned.

::data[format=table] | title=STS-51L |url=http://spacefacts.de/ballistic/english/sts-51l.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010063720/http://www.spacefacts.de/ballistic/english/sts-51l.htm |archive-date=October 10, 2023 |access-date=February 26, 2014 |website=Spacefacts }} | Launch | Landing (planned) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | [[File:Space Shuttle seating plan.svg|150px]] Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck. Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck. | | | | | | | | | | | Scobee | | | | | | | | | | | Smith | | | | | | | | | | | Onizuka | McNair | | | | | | | | | | Resnik | | | | | | | | | | | McNair | Onizuka | | | | | | | | | | Jarvis | | | | | | | | | | | McAuliffe | | | | | | | | | | ::

Ascent failure and disaster

Main article: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster{{!}}Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Challenger_explosion.jpg" caption="''Challenger'' after the explosion 73 seconds after launch"] ::

During the ascent phase, 73 seconds after liftoff, the vehicle experienced a catastrophic structural failure resulting in the loss of crew and vehicle. The Rogers Commission later determined the cause of the accident to have been the failure of the primary and secondary (backup) O-ring seals on Challengers right Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). The failure of these seals allowed a flamethrower-like flare to impinge upon one of two aft SRB attach struts, which eventually failed, freeing the booster to pivot about its remaining attachment points. The forward part of the booster cylinder struck the external tank inter-tank area, leading to a structural failure of the Space Shuttle external tank (ET) – the core structural component of the entire stack. A rapid burning of liberated propellants ensued. With the structural "backbone" of the stack compromised and breaking up, the SRBs flew off on their own, as did the orbiter, which rapidly broke up due to overwhelming aerodynamic forces. The launch had been approved despite a predicted ambient temperature of −3 C, well below the qualification limit of major components such as the SRBs, which had been certified for use only at temperatures above 4 °C. Evidence found in the remnants of the crew cabin showed that several of the emergency Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) carried by the astronauts had been manually activated, suggesting that forces experienced inside the cabin during breakup of the orbiter were not inherently fatal, and that at least three crew members were alive and capable of conscious action for a period following vehicle breakup. "Tracking reported that the vehicle had and impacted the water in an area approximately located at 28.64° north, 80.28° west."

Crew fate

Divers from the located what they believed to be the crew cabin on the ocean floor on March 7, 1986. A dive the following day confirmed that it was the cabin and that the remains of the crew were inside. No official investigation into the Challenger disaster has determined the cause of death of the astronauts; it is almost certain that the breakup itself did not kill the entire crew as 3 of the 4 Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) that were recovered had been manually activated. This would only be done during an emergency or loss of cabin pressure. PEAPs do not provide a pressurized air flow and would still have resulted in the astronauts losing consciousness within several seconds. There were media reports alleging that NASA had a tape recording of the crew panicking and on-board conversation following the explosion during the 2 minute 45 second free fall before hitting the sea east of Florida. This was likely fabricated and no recording exists, as the crew may have been unconscious from loss of cabin pressure and the astronauts did not wear individual voice recorders.

Mission objectives

Deployment of Tracking Data Relay Satellite-B (TDRS-B) with an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster
Flight of "Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy" (SPARTAN-203)/Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable
Fluid Dynamics Experiment (FDE)
Comet Halley Active Monitoring Program (CHAMP)
Phase Partitioning Experiment (PPE)
Three Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) experiments
Two lessons for the Teacher in Space Project (TISP)
(unofficial) Ronald E. McNair was planning to play the saxophone in space for a track on Jean-Michel Jarre's album "Rendez-Vous".

Mission insignia

Francis R. "Dick" Scobee asked Kennedy Space Center engineer Ernie Reyes to design the mission patch seen above to represent the mission STS-51-L. In it, Challenger is depicted launching from Florida and soaring into space to carry out a variety of goals. Among the prescribed duties of the five astronauts and two payload specialists (represented by the seven stars of the U.S. flag) was observation and photography of Halley's Comet, backdropped against the U.S. flag in the insignia. Surnames of the crew members encircle the scene, with the payload specialists being recognized below. The surname of the first teacher in space, S. Christa McAuliffe, is followed by a symbolic apple.

References

(December 5, 2005). "STS-51L Mission Profile". [[NASA]].
(January 28, 2007). "Remembering the mistakes of Challenger".
"Rogers Commission, Vol. 4 Part. 7". [[Rogers Commission Report.
Mullane, Mike. (2006). "Riding Rockets". Simon and Schuster.
(April 2007). "S. Christa Corrigan McAuliffe". [[NASA]].
"STS-51L".
"Rogers Commission, Vol. 4 Part. 7". [[Rogers Commission Report.
Kerwin, Joseph P.. (July 28, 1986). "Challenger Crew Report". [[NASA]].
(January 28, 1986). "Shuttle explodes; crew lost". Daily Leader.
Isikoff, Michael. (March 10, 1986). "Remains of Crew of Shuttle Found". [[The Washington Post]].
Harwood, William. "The Fate of Challenger's Crew".
Binkowski, Brooke. (February 22, 2001). "Fact Check: Are These the Final Words of the Challenger Crew?".
Jensen, Claus. (1996). "No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative about the Challenger Accident and Our Time". Farrar, Straus, Giroux.
(2006). "Some Trust in Chariots: The Space Shuttle Challenger Experience". Xulon Press.

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