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50 free Challenger Disaster trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch, on the coldest morning NASA had ever flown. The cause was a rubber O-ring in a booster joint that engineers had warned about the night before, and the investigation that followed rewrote how NASA thought about risk, schedule pressure and the people who say no. These 50 questions cover the mission and its aftermath: STS-51-L's seven crew and the Teacher in Space Project that put Christa McAuliffe aboard, TDRS-B and Halley's Comet, the days of delays and the stuck bolt, the 53-degree argument on the Morton Thiokol teleconference, Allan McDonald's refusal to sign, the ice on the pad, 'go at throttle up', the Rogers Commission and its members from Neil Armstrong to Sally Ride, Richard Feynman's ice-water demonstration and Appendix F, the redesigned boosters, the replacement orbiter Endeavour, Barbara Morgan's eventual flight and the lessons the Columbia board said were never learned. The expert tier asks about the Criticality list, the two recovery ships, Ron McNair's saxophone and the flag from Troop 514. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation. The facts are kept plain; the crew are remembered by name.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date did the Challenger disaster occur?
January 28, 1986
It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft in flight.
Q 02How many seconds into its flight did Challenger break apart?
73
The vehicle was at about 46,000 feet over the Atlantic, travelling at Mach 1.92.
Q 03What was the mission designation of Challenger's final flight?
STS-51-L
It was the orbiter's tenth flight and the 25th of the Shuttle programme.
Q 04What component failed in the right solid rocket booster?
The O-ring seals
Record-low temperatures stiffened the rubber rings so they could not seal a field joint.
Q 05Which company manufactured the solid rocket boosters?
Morton Thiokol
Its engineers had proposed a redesigned field joint in 1985, and new casings were on order.
Q 06In which US state were the booster segments manufactured?
Utah
Each SRB came in four main sections joined at Kennedy with tang-and-clevis field joints.
Q 07The O-rings were made of which rubber?
Viton
Each field joint carried two rings 20 feet in diameter and just 0.28 inches thick.
Q 08Who commanded the STS-51-L mission?
Dick Scobee
Smith was the pilot; Onizuka, Judith Resnik and McNair were mission specialists.
Q 09Which teacher flew on Challenger under the Teacher in Space Project?
Christa McAuliffe
She was chosen from more than 11,000 applicants and planned to teach two lessons from orbit.
Q 10Where did the Teacher in Space honoree teach social studies from 1983?
Concord High, New Hampshire
She had designed her own course called 'The American Woman'.
Q 11Which payload specialist flew to conduct research for Hughes Aircraft?
Gregory Jarvis
The seven-member crew included two payload specialists and three mission specialists.
Q 12What satellite was STS-51-L meant to deploy?
TDRS-B
A tracking and data relay satellite; its replacement, TDRS-3, flew on the return-to-flight mission in 1988.
Q 13Which comet's passage was the crew scheduled to observe?
Halley
They planned to deploy and retrieve a Spartan satellite as it neared the Sun.
Q 14Dust storms at which emergency landing site caused one of the launch delays?
Q 21Why was the launch held an extra hour on the morning of January 28?
To let ice on the pad melt
Water left running to stop pipes freezing had formed ice down the fixed service structure.
Q 22Which company's engineers argued pad ice made the launch unsafe?
Rockwell International
Rocco Petrone's team feared ice striking the orbiter; Kennedy and Johnson engineers disagreed.
Q 23From which pad did Challenger launch on its final mission?
LC-39B
The return-to-flight mission, STS-26, lifted off from the same pad in 1988.
Dakar, Senegal
NASA switched to Casablanca as the alternate, but its runway lacked lighting, limiting launch times.
Q 15What halted the January 27 countdown at T-9 minutes?
A stuck bolt on the hatch handle
By the time it was removed, high winds closed the window and the launch slipped a day.
Q 16Which CBS anchor called the bolt delay 'high-tech low comedy'?
Dan Rather
Media ridicule of the postponements was later cited as a pressure on NASA to launch.
Q 17Below what temperature did the booster engineers say they lacked data on O-ring sealing?
53 °F
That was the previous coldest launch; the forecast for the morning was far below it.
Q 18Which NASA booster manager asked whether Thiokol expected him to wait until April?
Lawrence Mulloy
He demanded a signed recommendation to launch and did not mention the O-ring debate to his superiors.
Q 19Which Thiokol director at Kennedy refused to sign off on the launch decision?
Allan McDonald
Joe Kilminster signed and faxed the recommendation from Utah instead.
Q 20What was the air temperature when Challenger was finally cleared to launch?
36 °F
Overnight readings had the right booster at 8 °F, but booster temperature was not a launch criterion.
Q 24How many puffs of dark smoke escaped the right booster in the first seconds of flight?
Nine
They came from the aft field joint as it rotated at ignition; aluminium oxides then briefly resealed it.
Q 25What were the last words transmitted from Challenger on the air-to-ground loop?
'Roger, go at throttle up'
Commander Scobee was answering CapCom Richard Covey's 'Challenger, go at throttle up'.
Q 26Who was the CapCom who said 'Challenger, go at throttle up'?
Richard Covey
The main engines had just throttled up to 104 percent.
Q 27Which NASA public affairs officer said 'Obviously a major malfunction'?
Steve Nesbitt
He was initially unaware of the explosion and kept reading flight data.
Q 28What did flight director Jay Greene order in Mission Control after the breakup?
Contingency procedures, locking the doors
Phones were shut down and terminals frozen to preserve data.
Q 29Which network carried the launch and explosion live nationally?
CNN
Many schools watched because of the Teacher in Space Project; other networks cut in afterwards.
Q 30Which two ships were first sent to recover debris after the accident?
MV Freedom Star and MV Liberty Star
They were the booster recovery ships; the Navy's USS Preserver joined the deep search in February.