This Encyclopedia Britannica Technology and Science list features seven accidents that occurred on spacecraft in the history of outer space expeditions.
RACHAEL JOY
NASA engineer Roland Norris onboard his sailboat Captiva docked in Merritt Island, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 13, 2021, where he wrote a book about his career. He says the chapter about the Challenger astronauts was the hardest to write. It took him seven years to finish his nearly 200 page memoir “My Path to a Career in Aerospace and an Out of This World Job with NASA.” (Rachael Joy/Florida Today via AP)
MELBOURNE, Fla. When engineer Roland Norris set out to write down the stories of his career spanning 40 years at NASA, he had one regret.
“I wish I’d kept a journal or made notes. Instead I wrote it all from memory,” Norris told FLORIDA TODAY.
The 1980s were an unforgettably unique era. The music, the fashion, the sports rivalries, the movies and television shows all defined the decade.
However, for every good thing the 80s brought, there were twice as many unfortunate disasters that came too.
On Jan. 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded only 73 seconds after its launch.
On board were astronauts Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Michael Smith, Francis (Dick) Scobee, Ronald McNair and most notably, school teacher Christa McAuliffe. They were all killed when the shuttle broke apart in midair over the Atlantic Ocean, turning a historic event into a national nightmare.