On the morning of January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger, the 2nd orbital craft to be built, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:38 a.m. EST. One minute and 13 seconds into its flight, Challenger exploded, killing all seven astronauts on board. Liftoff in 36 degree weather had caused a $900 O-ring on the right solid rocket booster to leak and doomed the $1.2 billion spacecraft and her crew.

The disaster shocked Americans who had come to regard shuttle missions as commonplace. The risk involved in space exploration became all too clear on that day, and foes of NASA gained an impetus to seek its demise.

More than 10 years after the Challenger disaster, NASA is only now beginning to regain the prominence it once had. The space program, which slowed in the late 80's, has now adopted stricter regulations on shuttle launches and has lessened the risk to humans by embarking on successful robotic explorations, as seen in the recent Mars Pathfinder Mission.