Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 28, 2022

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard. Challenger disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC), 73 seconds into its flight. The disaster was caused by the failure of the two O-ring seals in a joint in the Space Shuttle's right solid rocket booster in record-low temperatures. Several crew members are known to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft, but the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable, and the orbiter had no escape system. President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident; it criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. There was a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program. To replace Challenger, the construction of Endeavour was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992.