#sts-51l

Crew members of the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51 who tragically lost their lives when the shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986

Front Row (left to right):: Pilot Michael J. Smith:, CommanderFrancis R. "Dick" Scobee, Mission SpecialistRonald E. McNair:

"STS-51-L Space Shuttle Challenger is carried by a Crawler-transporter on the way to its launch pad, prior to its final flight before being destroyed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster."

Photographed on December 22, 1985.

STS-51L Crew Back Row: Mission Specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Payload Specialists Christa McAuliffe and Gregory B. Jarvis, Mission Specialist Judith A. Resnik, Front Row: Pilot Michael J. Smith, Commander Francis R. Scobee, Mission Specialist Ronald E. McNair.

Reference guide of all the external changes made to the Space Shuttle Orbiter Challenger (OV-099) during her lifetime.

Date: 1983-1985

"On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger and her seven-member crew were lost when a ruptured O-ring in the right Solid Rocket Booster caused an explosion soon after launch. After the accident, search and recovery teams worked for months to bring debris from Shuttle to impoundment areas at the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where reconstruction teams separated the pieces of the orbiter from those of the External Tank and the Solid Rocket Boosters. Taped squares on the floor turned the impoundment areas into a grid in which the reconstruction teams could piece together the Shuttle debris like a puzzle with many missing segments. Shown here is the reassembled Orbiter."

Date: April 9, 1986

Science Photo Library: link

These shots were taken in the week between Christmas and New Year's, very late 1985. STS-51-L was the first shuttle launch from LC-39B. Challenger was rolled out in December 1985 to check fitment of the new elements.