<P> On January 28 , 1986 , the NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS - 51 - L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger ( OV - 99 ) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight , killing all seven crew members , which consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists . The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean , off the coast of Cape Canaveral , Florida , at 11 : 39 EST ( 16 : 39 UTC ) . The disintegration of the vehicle began after a joint in its right solid rocket booster ( SRB ) failed at liftoff . The failure was caused by the failure of O - ring seals used in the joint that were not designed to handle the unusually cold conditions that existed at this launch . The seals ' failure caused a breach in the SRB joint , allowing pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tank . This led to the separation of the right - hand SRB 's aft field joint attachment and the structural failure of the external tank . Aerodynamic forces broke up the orbiter . </P>
<P> On January 28 , 1986 , the NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS - 51 - L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger ( OV - 99 ) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight , killing all seven crew members , which consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists . The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean , off the coast of Cape Canaveral , Florida , at 11 : 39 EST ( 16 : 39 UTC ) . The disintegration of the vehicle began after a joint in its right solid rocket booster ( SRB ) failed at liftoff . The failure was caused by the failure of O - ring seals used in the joint that were not designed to handle the unusually cold conditions that existed at this launch . The seals ' failure caused a breach in the SRB joint , allowing pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tank . This led to the separation of the right - hand SRB 's aft field joint attachment and the structural failure of the external tank . Aerodynamic forces broke up the orbiter . </P>
when did the challenger space shuttle blow up
when did the challenger space shuttle blow up
On January 28 , 1986
On January 28 , 1986