Nasa Space Shuttle Challenger disaster:

Remembering the tragedy on its 30th anniversary

On the morning of 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of

its seven crew members. Travelling at nearly 2,000mph at a height of ten miles, the Space Challenger was enveloped in a red, orange and white fireball as thousands of tons of liquid hydrogen

and oxygen fuel exploded.

According to reports, a ruptured O-ring (mechanical gasket in the shape of a circle) located in the right solid rocket booster caused the explosion after the shuttle launched from the Kennedy Space

Center.

In July 1986, six months after the tragedy, a report was released on the deaths of the crew but was inconclusive, due to a number

of factors that remained uncertain about the explosion.

The report concluded that the cause of death for all seven crew members could not be determined.

The seven astronauts were

Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis,

and school teacher Christa McAuliffe

The crew of the Challenger, from left to right: Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, Pilot Michael Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Commander Francis "Dick" Scobee, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis, Mission Specialist Judith Resnik, and Mission Specialist Ronald McNair. IMAGE: AP

The Space Shuttle 51L crew is shown during simulation at the Johnson Space Center before their ill fated flight. (LtoR) Mike Smith Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and commander Franis R. (Dick) Scobee. The other three members of the crew would be seated on a lower deck during takeoff. Denver Post Library Archive

Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan, right, laugh during training in 1986. (NASA)

The space shuttle Challenger is transferred to the high bay of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 17, 1985. Inside the cavernous VAB, the Challenger orbiter was mated with its solid rocket boosters and external tank in preparation for its launch a month later.Terry Renna / AP, file

Jan. 24, 1986 Christa McAuliffe gives a thumbs-up as she prepares for a test flight at Kennedy Space Center. PHIL SANDLIN/AP

The shuttle Challenger is delivered to its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center atop a mobile crawler-transporter.NASA

A launch-pad camera captures a close-up view of the shuttle Challenger's liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. From this camera position, a cloud of gray-brown smoke can be seen on the right side of the solid rocket booster, directly across from the letter "U" in "United States" on the orbiter. This was the first visible sign that a breach in the booster's joint may have occurred. Investigators determined that frigid overnight temperatures caused the booster joints' normally pliable rubber O-ring seals to become hard and non-flexible. The failure of the seals caused hot exhaust gases to blow through the joints, cutting into the external fuel tank.NASA

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger flight 51-L, leave their quarters for the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. From foreground are commander Francis Scobee, Mission Specialist Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist Ronald McNair, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis, Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, teacher Christa McAuliffe and pilot Michael Smith. (AP/Steve Helber

The crew of Space Shuttle 51-L walks out from their quarters en route to the Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger early Tuesday morning for a 2nd attempt at launch. Credit: AP Laserphoto

Teacher Christa McAuliffe smiles after she was suited up for her space flight at the Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 27, 1986 not knowing it would be her last. AP Photo

Spectators in the VIP area at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida watch as the Space Shuttle Challenger lifts from Pad 39-B on Jan. 28, 1986. The shuttle, carrying a crew of seven, including the first teacher in space, exploded about 73 seconds after launch killing everyone on board.BRUCE WEAVER/AP Photo

The parents of teacher astronaut Christa McAuliffe, Edward and Grace Corrigan of Framingham, Mass., bundled up against the chilly windy weather at the VIP area at Kennedy Space Center look out towards launch pad 39b through high powered binoculars. McAuliffe perished in the Challenger explosion along with the other 6 crew members aboard the flight. Denver Post Library Archive

Classmates of the son of Christa McAuliffe, America's first schoolteacher to become an astronaut, cheer as the space shuttle Challenger lifts skyward from Cape Canaveral. Their delight soon turned to horror as the entire crew of seven was lost in the explosion 73 seconds into the flight. (AP/Jim Cole)

In this Jan. 28, 1986 picture, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. shortly before it exploded with a crew of seven aboard. (AP Photo/Thom Baur)

The Space shuttle Challenger lifts off on an apparently flawless launch 28 January 1986 over Space Kennedy CenterBob Pearson/ Getty Images

The right solid rocket booster on the shuttle Challenger begins to explode, just a little more than a minute into the shuttle's ascent from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 28, 1986.. AFP / NASA via AFP - Getty Images

At about 76 seconds, fragments of the orbiter can be seen tumbling against a background of fire, smoke and vaporized propellants from Challenger's external fuel tank. The left solid rocket booster is still shooting skyward. A reddish-brown cloud envelops the disintegrating orbiter. The color is indicative of the nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer propellant in the orbiter's reaction control system.NASA

An orange fireball marks the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. Bruce Weaver / AP, file

Distraught onlookers can't believe their eyes having witnessed the Challenger space shuttle explode just seconds after takeoff at the Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 28, 1986.AP Photo/File

Young Scott McAuliffe's third grade teacher comforts a student (l.) as another youngster and a young woman (r.) react after seeing the Challenger explode in midair, killing all aboard on Jan. 28, 1986. The teacher and student are from the Kimbell Elementary School in Concord, N.H., where young McAuliffe, son of space school teacher Christa McAuliffe, was a student. AP Photo

Spectators at the Kennedy Space Center VIP area react to the explosion of the Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. The space shuttle exploded some seventy-two seconds after ignition, all aboard perished. Denver Post Library Archive

Teachers and students from McAuliffe's school in New Hampshire gasp in shock and tears as they watch the debris fall from the sky after the explosion. (The New York Times/ Keith Meyers) 

The parents of teacher astronaut Christa McAuliffe, Edward and Grace Corrigan hold hands as they watch the launch of space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986 at the Kennedy Space Center VIP area. Christa's sister Lisa Bristol (L) has her mouth agape as the orbiter lifts off. Denver Post Library Archive

McAuliffe's family reacts to a malfunction warning on the NASA public address system, which was followed quickly by the explosion. (The Boston Globe/Janet Knott/1986) 

Members of teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe's family react shortly after the failed liftoff of the space shuttle Challenger from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 28, 1986. Christa's sister, Betsy, is in front, with parents Grace and Ed Corrigan behind.Jim Cole / AP, file

President Ronald Reagan, surrounded by members of his senior staff, watches a television replay of the explosion of the Challenger at the White House. From left are: Larry Speakes, Deputy White House Press Secretary; Presidential Assistant Dennis Thomas; Special Assistant Jim Kuhn; Reagan; White House Communications Director Patrick Buchanan, and Chief of Staff Donald Regan (AP/Craig Fuji)

Flight director Jay Greene studies data at his console inside Johnson Space Center's Mission Control Center in Texas, just minutes after the announcement that Challenger's ascent was not nominal.. NASA

Coast Guardsmen prepare to hoist the fulcrum of a solid rocket booster that was attached to the space shuttle Challenger to the deck of U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas during salvage operations off the Florida coast on Jan. 31, 1986.AP Photo

Coast Guardsmen hoist the right front section of the space shuttle Challenger from the Atlantic Ocean onto the Coast Guard cutter Dallas during salvage operations off the Florida coast on Jan. 31, 1986.AP Photo

Sailors from the Navy salvage ship USS Preserver pull in what is believed to be part of the rocket casing of an inertial upper stage, which rode in Challenger's cargo bay when it exploded 1/28/86. The stage was to have boosted a tracking data satellite to a higher orbit, after release by the crew. The debris was found in waters about 70 feet deep, 20 miles northeast of the Kennedy Space Center. (AP)

A section of the space shuttle Challenger, destroyed 73 seconds after launch on Jan. 28, 1986, is lowered into an abandoned missile silo on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 1987. The silos serve as permanent storage facilities for the Challenger debris. NASA

For weeks after the accident, search and recovery teams went out to retrieve Challenger debris from the Atlantic Ocean, with the help of the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy. Vessels brought pieces of debris to the Trident Basin at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, from which they were shipped to Kennedy Space Center for investigation. The Coast Guard cutter Dallas transported this fragment of exterior tiling.NASA

National Transportation Safety Board investigator John White kneels in front of the nose cone of the Challenger's right solid rocket booster on April 9, 1986. The right solid rocket booster is suspected by investigators of contributing to the explosion of the Challenger months before on Jan. 28.AP Photo

Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong, a member of the presidential panel investigating the Challenger explosion, listens to testimony before the commission in Washington on Feb. 11, 1986. Another commission member, David Acheson, listens in the background. A model of the space shuttle sits on the table.Scott Stewart / AP, file

Search and recovery teams located pieces of both the left and right sidewall of the shuttle Challenger during the months-long retrieval effort that followed the explosion on Jan. 28, 1986. Heat and fire damage scarred the right sidewall. But the left sidewall, depicted here, escaped the flames and suffered only from overload fractures and deep gouge marks. The largest intact piece formed part of the payload bay sidewall and measured approximately 30 by 12 feet. NASA

Why did the O-rings fail? On the day of the shuttle Challenger's launch, icicles draped structures at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The unusually cold weather, beyond the tolerances for which the rubber seals were approved, most likely caused the O-ring failure. NASA

A cross and a wreath, holding a picture of the space shuttle Challenger, stand on the shore as a Coast Guard cutter heads out to sea searching for debris from the shuttle at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP/Jim Neihouse/1986) 

The remains of the shuttle Challenger's seven crew members are transferred from seven hearses to a MAC C-141 transport plane at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility, for transport to Dover Air Force Base, Del. NASA

Flags near the Washington Monument stand at half-staff Wednesday in the aftermath of the space shuttle Challenger accident that killed a crew of seven on Jan. 28, 1986. Denver Post Library Archive

A Kennedy Space Center security guard lowers the flag to half mast at the press center on Jan. 28, 1986 in memory of the seven astronauts that perished aboard space shuttle Challenger. Launch pad 39B where the orbiter lifted off can be seen in the background. Denver Post Library Archive

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The American flag in the press site at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., flies at half-mast on Jan. 28, 1986 following the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.Jim Cole/AP Photo

Kennedy Space Center workers en route to Pad 39B are met by the sight of seven small American flags alongside the road Jan. 30, 1986. Associated Pressoes