{"id":1004,"date":"2015-03-02T22:56:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T22:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2020-06-17T15:36:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T15:36:52","slug":"sts-51-challenger-disaster-january-28-1986","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/sts-51-challenger-disaster-january-28-1986\/","title":{"rendered":"STS-51 &#8211; Challenger Disaster &#8211; January 28, 1986"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Background<\/h3>\n<p>Challenger was destroyed in the second minute of STS-51-L, the orbiter&#8217;s tenth mission, on January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 a.m. EST, when an O-ring seal on its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed. The O-rings failed to seal due to a variety of factors, including unusually cold temperatures. This failure allowed a plume of flame to leak out of the SRB and impinge on both the external fuel tank (ET) and SRB aft attachment strut. This caused both structural failure of the ET and the SRB pivoting into the orbiter and ET. The orbiter&#8217;s attitude rotated out of the normal flight profile and the vehicle assembly then broke apart under aerodynamic loads.<\/p>\n<h3>Document Archive<\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/images\/pdf.gif\" alt=\"\" \/>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/documents.theblackvault.com\/documents\/fbifiles\/challenger.pdf\">FBI File on Challenger Disaster<\/a> [182 Pages, 10.9MB] &#8211; The FBI conducted an investigation in order to determine if the January 28, 1986, explosion was the result of sabotage.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ead-preview\"><div class=\"ead-document\" style=\"position: relative;padding-top: 90%;\"><div class=\"ead-iframe-wrapper\"><iframe src=\"\/\/docs.google.com\/viewer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocuments.theblackvault.com%2Fdocuments%2Ffbifiles%2Fchallenger.pdf&amp;embedded=true&amp;hl=en\" title=\"Embedded Document\" class=\"ead-iframe\" style=\"width: 100%;height: 100%;border: none;position: absolute;left: 0;top: 0;visibility: hidden;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-document-loading\" style=\"width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0;top:0;z-index:10;\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-main\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/loading.svg\" width=\"55\" height=\"55\" alt=\"Loader\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Loading...<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-foot\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-foot-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/EAD-logo.svg\" alt=\"EAD Logo\" width=\"36\" height=\"23\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Taking too long?<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-document-btn ead-reload-btn\" role=\"button\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/reload.svg\" alt=\"Reload\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\"\/> Reload document\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>|<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/documents.theblackvault.com\/documents\/fbifiles\/challenger.pdf\" class=\"ead-document-btn\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/open.svg\" alt=\"Open\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\"\/> Open in new tab\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><p class=\"embed_download\"><a href=\"https:\/\/documents.theblackvault.com\/documents\/fbifiles\/challenger.pdf\" download>Download [10.28 MB] <\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background Challenger was destroyed in the second minute of STS-51-L, the orbiter&#8217;s tenth mission, on January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 a.m. EST, when an O-ring seal on its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed. The O-rings failed to seal due to a variety of factors, including unusually cold temperatures. This failure allowed a plume of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,19],"tags":[401,500,405,72,472],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","category-space","tag-accident","tag-challenger","tag-explosion","tag-nasa","tag-space"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.8 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Background Challenger was destroyed in the second minute of STS-51-L, the orbiter&#039;s tenth mission, on January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 a.m. EST, when an O-ring seal on its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed. The O-rings failed to seal due to a variety of factors, including unusually cold temperatures. This failure allowed a plume of\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Greenewald\"\/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/sts-51-challenger-disaster-january-28-1986\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.8\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Black Vault - Discover the Truth\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"STS-51 \u2013 Challenger Disaster \u2013 January 28, 1986 - The Black Vault\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Background Challenger was destroyed in the second minute of STS-51-L, the orbiter&#039;s tenth mission, on January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 a.m. EST, when an O-ring seal on its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed. 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This failure allowed a plume of","og:url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/sts-51-challenger-disaster-january-28-1986\/","og:image":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/space-shuttle-challengerjpg-ff9375e2f0d3b75c.jpg","og:image:secure_url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/space-shuttle-challengerjpg-ff9375e2f0d3b75c.jpg","og:image:width":1024,"og:image:height":688,"article:published_time":"2015-03-02T22:56:20+00:00","article:modified_time":"2020-06-17T15:36:52+00:00","twitter:card":"summary_large_image","twitter:title":"STS-51 \u2013 Challenger Disaster \u2013 January 28, 1986 - The Black Vault","twitter:description":"Background Challenger was destroyed in the second minute of STS-51-L, the orbiter's tenth mission, on January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 a.m. EST, when an O-ring seal on its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed. The O-rings failed to seal due to a variety of factors, including unusually cold temperatures. 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