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 Mission 2007 Space Shuttle Mission 2007, is a highly realistic Space Shuttle stand-alone mission simulator for Microsoft Windows. The simulator was released on January 1, 2008 after having been under development for more than six years. The main purpose of "Space Shuttle Mission 2007" is to allow the gamer to experience real historical NASA Space Shuttle missions from liftoff (T-00:01:50:00) to landing. Initially, "Space Shuttle Mission 2007" was released with a set of 11 missions but as time passed, the development team has been releasing new missions as free add-ons. The missions include satellite deployment and servicing (including