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Michael J. Smith

American - (NASA)

Lost In Flight

Date of Birth: April 30, 1945
Date of Death: Jan. 28, 1986


Michael John Smith was an American astronaut—pilot of the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the STS-51-L mission. All seven crew members died.

Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-51-L

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Jan. 28, 1986, 4:38 p.m.
Status: Failure
Mission:

The tenth mission for Challenger, STS-51-L was scheduled to deploy the second in a series of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, carry out the first flight of the Shuttle-Pointed Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN-203) / Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable in order to observe Halley's Comet, and carry out several lessons from space as part of the Teacher in Space Project and Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP).

Low Earth Orbit
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Administrator: Jared Isaacman

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


Falcon 9
Success
1 day, 14 hours ago
GPS III SV10
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Tenth of ten GPS III missions.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 5 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-22
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


New Glenn
Failure
3 days, 10 hours ago
BlueBird Block 2 #2
Launch Complex 36A - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…


Long March 4C
Success
5 days, 17 hours ago
Daqi-2 (AEMS)
Launch Area 94 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Daqi-2 (DQ-2), also known as the Atmospheric Environment Monitoring Satellite/AEMS, is the second of follow-on series of Chinese satellites to the GF…


Soyuz 2.1b/Volga
Success
5 days, 22 hours ago
Kosmos (Unknown Payload)
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Unknown satellite(s) for the Russian military.