Accident
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
January 28, 1986
On 28 January 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated about 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 16:39:13 UTC. It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft in flight and grounded the programme for nearly three years.