Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on its tenth mission, killing all seven crew members, including the schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space. The Rogers Commission found that cold weather had stiffened a rubber O-ring seal in a solid rocket booster, letting hot gas escape, and that NASA managers had ignored warnings from engineers at the manufacturer. Physicist Richard Feynman became well known for demonstrating the O-ring problem. The shuttle fleet was grounded for almost three years while the safety culture and design were changed.

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