The Challenger Disaster - Preceding Events

The Preceding

Events

The following is is description of events occurring at the time of the STS-51-L Space Shuttle mission.

The Space Shuttle Program

Officially known as the Space Transportation System (STS), the Space Shuttle Program was a series of manned space flights between 1981 and 2011 operated by NASA of the United States of America.

The orbiter (Shuttle) would be propelled vertically into space attached to two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) and a large external fuel tank. When it reaches typically holds four to seven astronauts including a commander, a pilot and a few mission specialists. The general tasks the Shuttle and its crew would perform usually include low-gravity experimentation, payload delivery and the repair of satellites. In recent years, the Shuttles would also bring supplies to and from the International Space Station.

After the NASA SkyLab and Apollo missions, the STS missions became NASA's primary focus.

A Close to the Cold War

At the time of the STS-51-L mission, the Cold War was coming to a close. America had already reached the moon long before and the arms race between the US and the Soviet Union was also reaching an end.

One year prior to the Challenger Disaster, Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in USSR and began to change its economic systems. He steered the Soviet Union towards capitalism and wanted to decrease their military budget in attempts to save the failing economy. As tensions between the US and USSR slowly fade away, the Cold War officially came to an end in 1991.