The two solid rocket boosters flew in different directions as the external fuel tank became a fireball.(AP: Bruce Weaver / File) Forty years ago, the Challenger space shuttle disintegrated just after ...

Americans' attention was torn from the growing conflict in Iraq this Saturday, February 1, when the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded over the skies of Texas. Now, 17 years after the Challenger ...

Seven astronauts were killed in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster. Because a teacher was aboard, millions of schoolchildren watched the event live in school. Forty years later, many of those ...

Five astronauts and two payload specialists make up the STS 51-L crew, scheduled to fly aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in January of 1986. Crewmembers are (left to right, front row) astronauts ...

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster didn’t begin during re-entry. It began 16 days earlier, with something NASA believed was harmless. In 2003, Columbia launched on what appeared to be a routine mission.

On this day in history, Feb.1, 2003, as the Space Shuttle Columbia made its decent back to Earth after completing a 16-day mission in space, a real-life nightmare unfolded. The shuttle exploded and ...

Forty years ago today, Americans were stunned, shocked and saddened when the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on a cold, cloudless day in Florida. A booster leak ignited the ...