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Space Shuttle Challenger remembered on 25th anniversary of tragedy

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger and her seven-member crew were lost when a ruptured O-ring in the right Solid Rocket Booster caused the shuttle to break apart 73 seconds after launch. (NASA)
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger and her seven-member crew were lost when a ruptured O-ring in the right Solid Rocket Booster caused the shuttle to break apart 73 seconds after launch. (NASA)

Twenty-five years ago, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after liftoff, killing all seven crew members on board.

Here in St. Louis, the Challenger Learning Center is offering a variety of programs honoring the Challenger crew and their families.

Center director Tasmyn Scarl Front says her organization will offer free simulated space shuttle missions.

“We are also doing distance learning programs from one of our partner organizations, the cooperating school districts,” Front said, “with schools all over the country doing some of the lessons that Christa McAuliffe, who was the teacher on board the Challenger, would have been doing from space.”

More information about these and other commemorative programs is available on the St. Louis Challenger Learning Center website.