On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after its 11:38 am launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The seven crew members, including the pilot, U.S. Navy Captain Michael John Smith of Beaufort, North Carolina, died in the disaster.
Investigators later determined that cold weather caused a seal in the craft’s right solid rocket booster to fail, allowing pressurized hot gas from the solid rocket motor to reach the external fuel tank. The spacecraft broke apart and disintegrated in a plume of white smoke over the Atlantic Ocean.
The fatal mission (Flight STS-51L), which was to have deployed two satellites into orbit, received much media attention because it marked the first time a civilian, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, was allowed to travel in space. After the disaster, NASA suspended shuttle flights for two years. The Challenger’s remains were recovered from the ocean floor nearly two months after the explosion. Captain Smith was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on May 3, 1986. There is a monument to Smith on the waterfront in Beaufort and the town’s Michael J. Smith Airport is named in his honor.
To learn more about Michael Smith as well as Challenger, please visit these resources:
- Space flight on NCpedia
- Smith’s official biography from NASA
- Details on the Challenger accident from NASA
For more about North Carolina’s history, arts, and culture, visit NC DNR’s Cultural Resources online.