Challenger Disaster

Date: January 28, 1986 • Location: Cape Canaveral, United States

The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its tenth mission (video featured), killing all seven crew members.

On January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated about 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 16:39:13 UTC. It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight.