NASA and families of fallen astronauts mark 40th anniversary of space
shuttle Challenger accident
[January 23, 2026]
By MARCIA DUNN
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Families of the astronauts lost in the space
shuttle Challenger accident gathered back at the launch site Thursday to
mark that tragic day 40 years ago.
All seven on board were killed when Challenger broke apart following
liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986.
At the Kennedy Space Center memorial ceremony, Challenger pilot Michael
Smith’s daughter, Alison Smith Balch, said through tears that her life
forever changed that frigid morning, as did many other lives. “In that
sense,” she told the hundreds of mourners, “we are all part of this
story.”
“Every day I miss Mike," added his widow, Jane Smith-Holcott, “every
day's the same.”
The bitter cold weakened the O-ring seals in Challenger's right solid
rocket booster, causing the shuttle to rupture 73 seconds after liftoff.
A dysfunctional culture at NASA contributed to that disaster and, 17
years later, shuttle Columbia's.
Kennedy Space Center's deputy director Kelvin Manning said those humble
and painful lessons require constant vigilance “now more than ever" with
rockets soaring almost every day and the next astronaut moonshot just
weeks away.
Challenger’s crew included schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was
selected from thousands of applicants representing every state. Two of
her fellow teacher-in-space contenders — both retired now — attended the
memorial.
“We were so close together,” said Bob Veilleux, a retired astronomy high
school teacher from New Hampshire, McAuliffe's home state.
Bob Foerster, a sixth grade math and science teacher from Indiana who
was among the top 10 finalists, said he's grateful that space education
blossomed after the accident and that it didn't just leave Challenger's
final crew as “martyrs."
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A memorial wreath is seen at the Astronaut Memorial during NASA's
Day of Remembrance for the 40th Anniversary of the Challenger
tragedy at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape
Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
“It was a hard reality,” Foerster noted at the Space Mirror Memorial
at Kennedy's visitor complex.
Twenty-five names are carved into the black mirror-finished granite:
the Challenger seven, the seven who perished in the Columbia
disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, the three killed in the Apollo 1 fire on
Jan. 27, 1967, and all those lost in plane and other on-the-job
accidents.
Relatives of the fallen Columbia and Apollo crews also attended
NASA's Day of Remembrance, held each year on the fourth Thursday of
January. The space agency also held ceremonies at Virginia's
Arlington National Cemetery and Houston's Johnson Space Center.
“You always wonder what they could have accomplished” had they lived
longer, Lowell Grissom, brother of Apollo 1 commander Gus Grissom,
said at Kennedy. “There was a lot of talent there.”
___
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