The latter resulted in a higher than usual media interest and coverage of the mission the launch and subsequent disaster were seen live in many schools across the United States. The crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking school teacher Christa McAuliffe into space.
The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the tenth flight for the orbiter and the twenty-fifth flight of the Space Shuttle fleet.
It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist, teacher.
