25th Anniversary of the Challenger disaster
Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
Section:Picture story
In this 1986 file photo, Christa McAuliffe, left, and Barbara Morgan, right, laugh during training.
NASA, FIle Associated Press
In this Jan. 27, 1986 file picture, the crew for the space shuttle Challenger flight 51-L, leaves their quarters for the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. From foreground are commander Francis Scobee, Mission Spl. Judy Resnick, Mission Spl. Ronald McNair, Payload Spl. Gregory Jarvis, Mission Spl. Ellison Onizuka, teacher Christa McAuliffe and pilot Michael Smith.
Steve Helber, FIle Associated Press
In this Jan. 28, 1986 picture, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. shortly before it exploded with a crew of seven aboard.
Thom Baur, File Associated Press
This Jan. 28, 1986 picture provided by NASA shows an unusual flame jutting from the side of a solid rocket booster on the space shuttle Challenger during its launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. A subsequent explosion killed its crew of seven.
NASA, FIle Associated Press
In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Bruce Weaver, File Associated Press
In this Jan. 28, 1986 file picture, two unidentified spectators at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. react after they witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
File Associated Press
This Jan. 28, 1986 file picture shows U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office of the White House after a televised address to the nation about the space shuttle Challenger explosion.
Dennis Cook, File Associated Press
This file picture shows a drawing made on Jan. 31, 1986 by a first grade student whose class at the Our Lady of Lourdes School in Melbourne, Fla. was asked to draw what they thought happened to the space shuttle Challenger and the people aboard.
Thom Baur, File Associated Press
In this Saturday, Feb. 1, 1986 file picture, a cross and wreath with a picture of the space shuttle Challenger stand on the shore as a Coast Guard cutter heads out to sea searching for debris from the shuttle in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Jim Neihouse, File Associated Press
In this Friday, Feb. 1, 1986 file picture, customer David Kimball of Manchester, N.H. reacts as store employees Lynne Beck of Salisbury, N.H. and Lisa Olson, far right, of Manchester, N.H., embrace as they watch the Houston memorial service for the astronauts who died in the Challenger explosion on a television in a store in Concord, N.H. Pictured on the television screen are family members of one of the astronauts.
Charles Krupa, File Associated Press
This 1986 file photo provided by NASA shows the crew of the space shuttle Challenger. From left are Ellison Onizuka, Mike Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Dick Scobee, Greg Jarvis, Ron McNair and Judith Resnik.
NASA, File Associated Press
Henry Cruz, lower right, looks at a space shuttle Challenger replica honoring USAF Colonel Ellison Onizuka, the first Japanese American astronaut who died in the Challenger explosion in 1986, at a memorial Wednesday Jan. 26, 2011 in Los Angeles. Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger which killed seven astronauts.
Nick Ut Associated Press
Johnson Space center director Michael L. Coats, left, stands with Lorena Onizuka and Darien Onizuka-Morgan, the wife and daughter of space shuttle Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka, after placing flowers on a memorial marker for Onizuka in the Astronaut Memorial Tree Grove during the annual National Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, in Houston. NASA holds the agency-wide Day of Remembrance every January to honor the fallen crews of Apollo 1and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Friday, Jan. 28, will mark the 25th anniversary of the Challenger accident.
Houston Chronicle, Smiley N. Pool Associated Press
A group of NASA T-38 jet trainer aircraft perform a flyover of the Astronaut Memorial Tree Grove during the annual National Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, in Houston. NASA holds the agency-wide Day of Remembrance every January to honor the fallen crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Friday, Jan. 28, will mark the 25th anniversary of the Challenger accident.
Houston Chronicle, Smiley N. Pool Associated Press