Space Shuttle Challenger (
NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation:
OV-099) was the second
orbiter of NASA's space shuttle program to be put into service following
Columbia. The shuttle was built by
Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division in
Downey, California. Its maiden flight,
STS-6, started on April 4, 1983. It launched and landed nine times before
breaking apart 73 seconds into its tenth mission,
STS-51-L, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members, including a civilian who worked as a school teacher. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed in flight. The accident led to a two-and-a-half year grounding of the shuttle fleet; flights resumed in 1988 with
STS-26 flown by
Discovery.
Challenger itself was replaced by
Endeavour which was built using structural spares ordered by NASA as part of the construction contracts for
Discovery and
Atlantis.
Endeavour was launched for the first time in May 1992.