The Challenger (OV-099) was a space shuttle operated by the United States of America's NASA space agency in the 20th century.
History and legacy[]
On 28 January 1986, Challenger was destroyed, exploding 73 seconds after being launched for mission STS-51-L. All seven members of the crew were killed in the explosion. (DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: Twilight; ST reference: Star Trek Chronology)
One of the seven crew members was a civilian school teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The USS McAuliffe and the Class F shuttlecraft McAuliffe, attached to the Federation starship USS Farragut, were named in her honor. (DS9 comic: "Frozen Boyhood", ST reference: Ships of the Line 2006)
Challenger mission specialist Ellison Onizuka was similarly honored by Starfleet, with a Type-15 shuttlepod Onizuka on the USS Enterprise-D named after him. (TNG episodes: "The Ensigns of Command", "The Mind's Eye")
In April 2063, a large images of Challenger's STS-41-G and STS-51-L mission patches were displayed in the Crash & Burn bar in Bozeman, Montana. (TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact)
Elias Vaughn once viewed the memorial to the crew of the Challenger when he was a teenager. In the year 2376, the Inamuri entity allowed Vaughn to experience the memory. (DS9 - Mission Gamma novel: Twilight)
Personnel[]
Early flights[]
- Sally Ride (STS-7, 1983; STS 41G, 1984)
Final flight[]
- Gregory Jarvis
- Christa McAuliffe
- Ronald McNair
- Ellison Onizuka
- Judith Resnik
- Dick Scobee
- Michael J. Smith
Appendices[]
Connections[]
United States space shuttles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Enterprise (OV-101) • Columbia (OV-102) • Challenger (OV-099) • Discovery (OV-103) • Atlantis (OV-104) • Endeavour (OV-105) • Icarus (prototype) • Renaissance (OV-165, 2nd gen.) |
This section is written from the Real World point of view. |
Background[]
External link[]
- Space Shuttle Challenger article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.