The space shuttle Challenger exploded into flames shortly after liftoff
from Cape Canaveral yesterday, killing all seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, in the worst accident in the history of space travel.
The disaster, which occurred at 11:40 a.m., halted the business of a nation that had come to accept manned spaceflight as routine.
It was witnessed by thousands on the scene in Florida, by millions watching live television and by millions more who saw the slow-motion, videotape replays of the 100-ton spacecraft bursting into a huge orange and white fireball.
At the time of the explosion, 74 seconds after liftoff, Challenger was 10 miles up and eight miles downrange from Cape Canaveral, speeding toward orbit at 1,977 m.p.h. Conversations between the crew and ground controllers indicated that the end came utterly without warning.
Ships, planes and helicopters initially rushed to a spot 18 miles off the Florida coast, where flaming debris rained down for nearly an hour after the blast. They then expanded their search to a broad expanse of Atlantic Ocean for clues to what had happened.
Jesse Moore, associate administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, told a news briefing in Florida that "based on very preliminary searches of the ocean where the Challenger impacted, these searches have not revealed any evidence that the crew of Challenger survived."
Neither Moore nor any other NASA officials would speculate on the cause of the demise of Challenger, which had been the workhorse of NASA's four-vehicle shuttle fleet. But some experts said that there appeared to have been a fuel leak, either from the main fuel tank or the twin solid-fuel rocket boosters, which ignited a second or two before the main blast.
In addition to McAuliffe, the crew members were commander Francis R. ''Dick" Scobee, 46; pilot Michael J. Smith, 40; Judith A. Resnik, 36; Ronald E. McNair, 35; Ellison S. Onizuka, 39, and Gregory B. Jarvis, 41.
President Reagan, who said in a brief message to the nation that this was ''a day for mourning and remembering," postponed last night's scheduled State of the Union speech for one week. He sent Vice President Bush to Cape Canaveral, along with NASA Acting Administrator William R. Graham, to oversee the investigation and convey the nation's grief to the families of the dead.
