On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart seventy-three seconds into its flight. The disintegration of the space shuttle occurred after an O-ring seal in one of its solid rocket boosters (SRB) failed. The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB, and a flare from within the solid rocket motor reached outside. This led to the separation of the SRB aft attachment and the structural failure of the external tank.
The Space Shuttle program was halted for 32 months. A special commission was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. The commission offered NASA nine recommendations that were to be implemented as a condition to have the space shuttle flights resumed.
The crew of Space Shuttle Challenger was composed of Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Sharon Christa McAuliffe.
The area where M.E.R. Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum on Mars is called Challenger Memorial Station, in memory of the last crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
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