Challenger Disaster Timeline

In 1986 NASA created a new Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, headed by a NASA associate administrator who reported directly to the NASA administrator, as the commission had specified.

In March 1986, the White House released a copy of the original State of the Union speech that President Reagan had planned to deliver on the night of the disaster.

In April 1986, the White House released a report that concluded there had been no pressure from the White House for NASA to launch Challenger prior to the State of the Union address.

On April 29, 1986, the astronauts' remains were transferred on a C-141 Starlifter aircraft from Kennedy Space Center to the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The Rogers Commission published its report on June 6, 1986, finding that the disaster was caused by the failure of an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster, exacerbated by cold launch temperatures.

Image source: Rogers Commission Report

On July 28, 1986, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Flight position was filled by former astronaut Richard H. Truly as part of the agency's post-disaster reorganization.

In August 1986, President Reagan approved the construction of an orbiter, which would later be named Endeavour, to replace Challenger.

The US House Committee on Science and Technology conducted an investigation of the Challenger disaster and released its own report on October 29, 1986.

The construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was approved in 1987 to replace Challenger. Construction began in 1987 and was completed in 1990.

Image source: Space Shuttle Endeavour

The Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM), developed in response to the Challenger disaster, was first tested on August 30, 1987.

Image source: Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster

On September 29, 1988, Discovery launched on the STS-26 mission from LC-39B with a crew of five veteran astronauts, marking NASA's return to flight after the Challenger disaster.

Image source: STS-26

Endeavour, built to replace Challenger, first flew on STS-49 in May 1992, restoring the shuttle fleet to four orbiters.

Image source: STS-49

After the Columbia disaster, the CAIB concluded that NASA had not set up a "truly independent" office for safety oversight, stating: "NASA's response to the Rogers Commission did not meet the Commission's intent" and "the causes of the institutional failure responsible for Challenger have not been fixed."

Image source: Columbia Accident Investigation Board

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle program suffered its second accident when Columbia disintegrated during reentry during STS-107, killing all seven crew members on board.

Image source: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

Following the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the Space Shuttle returned to flight in 2005 with the STS-114 mission.

Image source: STS-114

Seven asteroids were named after the crew members: 3350 Scobee, 3351 Smith, 3352 McAuliffe, 3353 Jarvis, 3354 McNair, 3355 Onizuka, and 3356 Resnik. The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on March 26, 1986.

Unidentified crew remains were buried at the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery on May 20, 1986.

An unpainted decorative oval in the Brumidi Corridors of the United States Capitol was finished with a portrait depicting the Challenger crew by Charles Schmidt in 1987.

In 1988, seven craters on the far side of the Moon, within the Apollo Basin, were named after the astronauts by the International Astronomical Union.

The Teacher in Space program, which Christa McAuliffe had been selected for, was canceled in 1990 as a result of the Challenger disaster.

Image source: Teacher in Space Project

In 1990, a 1/10 scale replica of Challenger in liftoff position was erected in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, California.

On December 17, 1996, two pieces of the orbiter were found at Cocoa Beach, Florida, more than a decade after the disaster.

In 1998, NASA replaced Teacher in Space with the Educator Astronaut Project, which required teachers to become professional astronauts trained as mission specialists rather than short-term payload specialists.

Image source: Educator Astronaut Project

In 2004, President George W. Bush posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crews of Challenger and Columbia, honoring their sacrifice.

The "Forever Remembered" exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex opened in July 2015 and includes a display of a 12-foot (3.7 m) section of Challenger's recovered fuselage.

Image source: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

On November 10, 2022, NASA announced that a 20-foot (6 m) piece of the shuttle had been found near the site of a destroyed World War II-era aircraft off the coast of Florida. The discovery was aired on the History Channel on November 22, 2022.

The book Prescription for Disaster: From the Glory of Apollo to the Betrayal of the Shuttle by Joseph Trento was published in 1987, arguing that the Space Shuttle program had been a flawed and politicized program from its inception.

In 1987, Malcolm McConnell, a journalist and a witness of the disaster, published Challenger–A Major Malfunction: A True Story of Politics, Greed, and the Wrong Stuff.

In 1988, physicist Richard Feynman's memoir, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character, was published, recounting his famous role on the Rogers Commission investigating the disaster.

Image source: What Do You Care What Other People Think?

The ABC television movie titled Challenger was broadcast on February 25, 1990, dramatizing the events surrounding the disaster and its investigation.

Image source: Challenger (1990 film)

In 1996, Diane Vaughan published The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, which argues that NASA's structure and mission created a climate of risk acceptance that resulted in the disaster.

Also in 1996, Claus Jensen published No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time, which primarily discusses the development of rocketry prior to the disaster and was criticized for relying on secondary sources.

In 2009, Allan McDonald published his memoir written with space historian James Hansen, Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, focusing on his personal involvement in the launch, investigation, and return to flight.

A BBC docudrama titled The Challenger Disaster was broadcast on March 18, 2013, focusing on Richard Feynman's investigation into the cause of the disaster.

A film directed by Nathan VonMinden, The Challenger Disaster, was released on January 25, 2019, depicting fictional characters participating in the decision process to launch.

The four-part docuseries Challenger: The Final Flight, created by Steven Leckart and Glen Zipper, was released by Netflix on September 16, 2020.

Image source: Challenger: The Final Flight

The first episode of the Australian television drama The Newsreader, broadcast on August 15, 2021, depicts the disaster from the perspective of journalists and crew within an Australian television newsroom at the time.