![]() Challenger disappeared as white vapor bloomed from the external tank. (Credit: Bruce Weaver/AP Photo)īut 73 seconds after Challenger’s launch, that dream quickly became a nightmare. The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lift off. Kids nationwide would watch the launch live and know that no dream was beyond reach. As a civilian, she was PR catnip: infinitely relatable and proof that space was now truly open to average Americans, not just hot-shot fighter jocks. ![]() All around the country people were getting excited-in large part because the seven-person crew’s included Payload Specialist Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher and mother of two chosen to fly as part of NASA’s Teacher in Space program. The sun had been up for less than an hour and air temperatures were a few notches above freezing when the crew of STS-51L boarded the orbiter Challenger that Tuesday morning. The launch on January 28, 1986, was different. ![]() For many Americans, shuttle flights carried little of the bravado and romance of the Apollo era. Missions-to conduct research, repair satellites, and build the International Space Station-failed to ignite popular imaginations the way a moon landing had. Projected frequency: more than 50 flights a year.īut had space flight become…too routine? Even as the shuttle undertook fewer than one-tenth that many flights, excitement quickly waned. The government agency had debuted the space shuttle program five years earlier with an aggressive public-relations message that the reusable vehicles would make access to space both affordable and routine. By January of 1986 America was already bored with spaceflight.
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