15th Anniversary of the Challenger Accident

The fifteenth anniversary of the Challenger accident, STS-51L, will take place on January 28, 2001. The NASA History Division has updated its World Wide Web site on STS-51L, Challenger, because of this anniversary. The URL is:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sts51l.html

Links on this page include a series of significant NASA sites containing information about the mission and the accident. These include the following:

  1. STS-51L Challenger Mission Profile.
  2. Sequence of major events of the Challenger accident.
  3. Image library of the STS-51L Challenger mission at Johnson Space Center.
  4. Movie clips of the STS-51L Challenger mission, from the Kennedy Space Center.
  5. Press kit: this pre-launch document has been scanned in regular and high-resolution formats by volunteer Rich Orloff.
  6. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, chaired by William P. Rogers.
  7. NASA's Actions to Implement the Rogers Commission Recommendations.
  8. A description of modifications to the solid rocket boosters from the On-line Space Shuttle Reference Manual.
  9. A Challenger Bibliography: This is chapter 7 of the Space Shuttle bibliography published in 1992.
  10. The fate of Challenger's crew: Dr. Joseph P. Kerwin's investigation tried to determine the cause of the crew's deaths. His report and the accompanying press release are available.
  11. The transcript from the mission's voice recorder, which operated from T-2:05 until the accident.
  12. Biographical Information on the Challenger crew.
  13. NASA Spacelink information on the Challenger accident.
  14. NASA shuttle web site on STS-51L.
  15. NASA Administrator's statement, on the tenth anniversary of the Challenger accident.

In addition, we have created links to numerous other sites on the web relating to the Challenger accident. Items included in this listing include:

  1. Richard Feynman's appendix to the Rogers Commission Report on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident
  2. President Reagan's speech on the Challenger disaster, January 28, 1986
  3. President Reagan's dulogy: remarks at a memorial service held in Houston following the Challenger disaster, January 31, 1986
  4. Life Magazine on Challenger
  5. Challenger remembered: A brief montage of images and sounds from the Challenger accident, from the CNN video vault
  6. Houston Chronicle's remembrance of the Challenger Disaster, January 28, 1986
  7. "An Analysis of the Challenger Accident" by Mark Haisler and Robert Throop, from the University of Texas at Austin mechanical engineering department
  8. "The Challenger Disaster" by Josh Madeira and Nick Rutherford and Robert Throop from the Bowdoin University physics department
  9. A case study in engineering ethics on the Challenger accident, from the departments of philosophy and mechanical engineering at Texas A University
  10. "The Challenger Shuttle Disaster: A Failure in Decision Support System and Human Factors Management"
  11. "A Disaster in Engineering: The Challenger Shuttle Disaster"
  12. Roger Boisjoly on the Challenger disaster
  13. Davinder Mahal's Challenger page
  14. Challenger Learning Center homepage

We hope this material will be useful in reflecting on and analyzing this significant event in the history of space flight. The Challenger accident remains the most tragic episode in the evolution of NASA and it is important to understand how and why it took place. These materials may help in this process of understanding.

Sincerely,

Roger D. Launius
NASA Chief Historian