Challenger

Two Carolinians along with five of their crew members were lost as a result of the Space Shuttle Challenger accident.

Florida was experiencing an unusual wave of freezing temperatures on Tuesday morning January 26, 1986. At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Space Shuttle Challenger was set to liftoff. Delayed briefly until 11:39 AM EST due to ice on the launch pad. Just seventy-three seconds after launch, what appeared at first to be an explosion took place.  The crew, vehicle, and payload were lost.  An accident investigation would reveal that the accident’s cause was the failure of the solid rocket motor O-rings due to the frigid temperatures. A botched weather forecast prevented the shuttle from launching just two days before under ideal conditions. A mishap with a sensor and bolt on the hatch scrubbed the launch the day before the accident. The result was putting Challenger in crosshairs of a disaster on that fateful Tuesday in late January.

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