Challenger
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Space shuttle Challenger viewed from the research module SPAS (shuttle pallet satellite) during STS-7. It was on this mission that Sally Ride became the first US woman to fly in space.
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With the jet-propelled manned manoeuvring unit (MMU), Bruce McCandless was able to move further from his spacecraft than had ever been attempted before. His flight took him 98 m/320 ft from the space shuttle Challenger.
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Smoke and clouds of vaporized propellant engulf the Challenger orbiter during the disastrous flight of 28 January 1986. Fragments from the break-up leave trails in the air while the orbiter's solid rocket booster has detached and continues to fly out of control.
| Second of the US space shuttles. It made its first flight on 4 April 1983. On its tenth flight on 28 January 1986 the vehicle was destroyed, and its crew of seven killed, when a fault with an O-ring in one of the external rocket boosters led to the explosion of the main fuel tank 73 seconds after lift-off. The accident grounded the shuttle programme until 29 September 1988. |
| Challenger spent a total of 69 days in space. |
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