Images: The Challenger disaster
Take a look back on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Challenger exploded shortly after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Jan. 28, 1986.
In this 1985 photo, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe rides with her daughter Caroline during a parade down Main Street in Concord, N.H. McAuliffe was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on Jan. 28, 1986.
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In this 1986 file photo, members of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident walk past the solid rocket boosters and the external tank of a shuttle being fitted in the Vehicle Assembly building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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This Jan. 28, 1986 photo provided by NASA shows icicles on hand rails of the space shuttle Challenger's service structure on the morning of its final launch from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The cold weather affected O-ring seals on a solid rocket booster, causing the explosion during launch.
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In this Friday, Feb. 1, 1986 file photo, 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 each other as they watch the Houston memorial service for the astronauts who died in the space shuttle 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.
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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.
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In this Jan. 31, 1986 file photo, Coast Guardsmen prepare to hoist the fulcrum of one of the space shuttle Challenger's solid rocket boosters onto the deck of U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas during salvage operations off the Florida coast. The Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff on Jan. 28.
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In this 1986 file photo, workers transport debris from the space shuttle Challenger, recovered after the Jan. 28, 1986 explosion, to a storage site on the Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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In this 1985 photo, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe gives a thumbs-up during a parade down Main Street in Concord, N.H. McAuliffe was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on Jan. 28, 1986.
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In this 1985 photo, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe rides with her children Caroline, left, and Scott during a parade down Main Street in Concord, N.H. McAuliffe was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on Jan. 28, 1986.
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In this Jan. 28, 1986 file picture, spectators at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. react after they witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
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In this series of Jan. 28, 1986 photos, the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. A family from Michigan watches the explosion from Shepard Park in Cocoa Beach.
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In this Jan. 27, 1986 file picture, the crew members of space shuttle Challenger flight 51-L, leave their quarters for the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. From foreground are commander Francis Scobee, Mission Spl. Judith Resnik, Mission Spl. Ronald McNair, Payload Spl. Gregory Jarvis, Mission Spl. Ellison Onizuka, teacher Christa McAuliffe and pilot Michael Smith.
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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.
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