Jan. 28, 2021 marks 35 years since the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in Cape Canaveral, Fla. A look back in photos.
Four crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger walk from their quarters at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., en route to the launch pad Jan. 28, 1986. The Challenger exploded moments into the launch, killing all seven of the crew, including, from front: pilot Mike Smith, school teacher Christa McAuliffe, mission specialist Ellison Onizuka and payload specialist Gregory Jarvis. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)Space teacher Christa McAuliffe in her helmet, in the white room as she prepares to climb aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986. She was to conduct two classes from space during the six day flight. In the background payload specialist Gregory Jarvis gets ready. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky, File)The Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off in a cloud of smoke with a crew of seven aboard, Jan. 28, 1986, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The shuttle exploded after this photo, taken from atop the Vehicular Assembly Building, was made. (AP Photo/Thom Baur)Classmates of the son of America’s first school teacher astronaut cheer as the space shuttle Challenger lifts skyward from Pad 39B, Jan. 28, 1986, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Their delight soon turned into horror as the shuttle exploded about 70 seconds into flight. The boy in the white hat and glasses at center is not a schoolmate but is Peter Billingsley, spokesman for the young astronaut program. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986. All seven crew members died in the explosion, which was blamed on faulty o-rings in the shuttle’s booster rockets. The Challenger’s crew was honored with burials at Arlington National Cemetery. (AP Photo/Bruce Weaver, File)In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, two unidentified spectators at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. react after they witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. (AP Photo, File)Senior class President Carina Dolcino is stunned by the news that the space shuttle carrying Concord High School teacher Christa McAuliffe exploded after launch Concord, New Hampshire on Jan. 28, 1986. Students at the school watched the launch on television sets scattered throughout the school. A gala celebration had been planned for a successful launch. (AP Photo/Ken Williams/Concord Monitor, File)An unidentified guard stands at the Saturn 1 launch pad area at the Cape Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 29,1967, the day after a flash fire that caused the deaths the Apollo 1 crew at Cape Canaverel, Fla. Three astronauts, Lt. Col. Virgil Grissom; Lt. Col Edward H. White, and Lt. Commander Roger Chafee were killed Jan. 28, 1967 when a fire erupted on the launch pad during a preflight test for the Apollo 1, AS-204 Moon mission. (AP Photo/File)In this 1986 file photo, members of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident walk past the solid rocket boosters and the external tank of a shuttle being fitted in the Vehicle Assembly building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Pool, File)In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, U.S. President Ronald Reagan sits in the Oval Office of the White House after a televised address to the nation about the space shuttle Challenger explosion. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)An American flag flies at half staff above the White House in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 1987 in observance of the previous year’s space shuttle Challenger accident. The Washington Monument is in the background to the left. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)In this 1986 file photo, workers transport debris from the space shuttle Challenger, recovered after the Jan. 28, 1986 explosion, to a storage site on the Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/James Neihouse, File)In this Friday, Feb. 1, 1986 file photo, customer David Kimball of Manchester, N.H. reacts as store employees Lynne Beck of Salisbury, N.H. and Lisa Olson, far right, of Manchester, N.H., embrace each other as they watch the Houston memorial service for the astronauts who died in the space shuttle Challenger explosion on a television in a store in Concord, N.H. Pictured on the television screen are family members of one of the astronauts. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)An estimated crowd of 2,500 people gather to participate in a memorial service for Concord High School teacher Christa McAuliffe, Friday, Jan. 31, 1986, around the foot of the statehouse steps in Concord, N.H. McAuliffe was one of seven people killed in the space shuttle Challenger explosion. (AP Photo/Bob LaPree, File)A delegation from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 10131, carry seven wreaths aboard a boat into the Atlantic Ocean, Monday, Feb. 3, 1986, off of the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla. They dropped the wreaths in honor of the seven crew members killed in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)A military honor guard carries the remains of one of the crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Tuesday, April 29, 1986, as the body was being transferred to Dover, Del. Seven crew members were killed in the Jan. 28th explosion. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)A mother and child relax on the beach, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 1986, at Cape Canaveral, Fla. as a cross stands in the sand as a reminder of the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger one week before. (AP Photo/Jim Neihouse)
By 
