Space Shuttle Challenger

STS-51-L was the 25th flight of the American Space Shuttle program, using the Space Shuttle Challenger, which lifted-off from Launch Complex 39-B, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on January 28, 1986. The mission ended in catastrophic failure with the destruction of Challenger, starting at 73 seconds after lift-off, and the death of all seven crew members. The Rogers Commission determined that the cause of the destruction was due to the failure of an O-ring seal on the starboard Solid Rocket Boosters. This flight marked the first time a non-government civilian, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, had flown aboard the Space Shuttle.

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Lists about real catastrophes that caused enormous damage, human casualties, and metric tons of profound suckage.

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Many of history&#39;s biggest tragedies were preventable disasters.&nbsp;Some started small and escalated quickly, and quite a few&nbsp;were human-made disasters caused by flat-out avoidable&nbsp;error. Even the consequences of many <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-natural-disasters-2018/lauren-slocum" target="_blank">natural disasters</a> could have been mitigated if people had just listened to warnings and paid attention.

Alas, people never learn - nor pay attention - and&nbsp;as a result, loss of life and destruction are often inevitable. These disasters that could have been avoided may have you thinking twice the next time you scoff at a meteorologist&#39;s warnings.&nbsp;

If People Paid Attention, These Disasters May Never Have Happened

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NASA

The Challenger&#39;s launch on January 28, 1986, was supposed to be a celebratory event for NASA. Notable for sending the first civilian into space, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, the Challenger&nbsp;would take its crew of seven into orbit around the&nbsp;Earth. NASA prepared a special stream for students across the nation to watch the shuttle launch, and children in Florida near Cape Canaveral viewed it live from their schools. But 73 seconds into the launch, disaster struck.

The shuttle&#39;s hardware malfunctioned due to unexpectedly cold weather conditions, rocket boosters fell from the craft, and the crew compartment was sent flying into the Atlantic.

Nearly every American knows <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/challenger-crew-was-alive/kellie-kreiss" target="_blank">what happened to the Challenger</a>, but not as many are aware of the repercussions its destruction had both on the public&#39;s morale and on NASA&#39;s safety standards. President Ronald Reagan faced the difficult task of addressing the nation and protecting the delicate and upsetting information that emerged from the incident. Massive overhauls in management and quality control resulted from the tragedy - independent contractors began auditing NASA, and escape procedures were set in place to prevent another disaster like the Challenger.

Knowing what happened after <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/challenger-explosion-facts/aaron-edwards" target="_blank">the Challenger exploded</a> is essential to understanding space travel today.

Space Shuttle Challenger

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