Space Shuttle Shuttle orbiter fleet. Sources: NASA launch manifest, NASA Space Shuttle archive On January 28, 1986, "Challenger" disintegrated 73 seconds after launch due to the failure of the right SRB, killing all seven astronauts on board. The disaster was caused by low-temperature impairment of an O-ring, a mission critical seal used between segments of the SRB casing. Failure of the O-ring allowed hot combustion gases to escape from between the booster sections and burn through the adjacent external tank, causing it to explode. Repeated warnings from design engineers voicing concerns about the lack of evidence of the O-rings' safety when the
Space Shuttle Mission 2007 Space Shuttle guiding the user through the mission. Extra-vehicular activities are conducted in first-person view allowing the user to experience the same feeling as astronauts do while "space walking". In certain missions, the virtual astronauts will also drive the Manned Maneuvering Unit to capture satellites for maintenance. The latest mission add-on is the STS-47 Spacelab mission. In this mission, the user can visit the Spacelab-J and float inside the lab in Zero-G just like real astronauts. Space Shuttle Mission 2007 Space Shuttle Mission 2007, is a highly realistic Space Shuttle stand-alone mission simulator for Microsoft Windows. The simulator was released