Space Shuttle mission STS-51-L was to be the 25th mission of the program. What made it special was to be lessons taught from space by a school teacher. On Jan. 28, 1986, 73 seconds after liftoff of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the crew and vehicle were lost. The commander for the flight was veteran astronaut Dick Scobee, an experienced test pilot who exhibited humility and admiration for his colleagues.
“Six, five, four, we’ve gone for main engine start and we have liftoff of America’s first Space Shuttle,” said NASA launch commentator Hugh Harris as more than a decade of development culminated with the dawn of a new era of spaceflight. John Young and Bob Crippen lifted off aboard Columbia on April 12, 1981. The Space Shuttle was an idea born in the closing days of the 1960s race to the Moon. The concept had many technological hurdles to overcome. After numerous delays, it became a triumph of American technology and engineering.