The Challenger was the second of five shuttles launched since 1981. Its first launch was on April 4th 1983. It had a total of nine trips until the disaster that occured on January 28th 1986. The crew comprised of 7 members. One member was a teacher from New Hampshire called Christa McAuliffe. The superiors were warned by the engineers that it would be dangerous to go ahead with the launch, as the temperature was seriously low and the components struggle to work at low temperatures. The Challenger launch still went ahead, despite the engineer's warning. After one minute and 13 seconds the Challenger exploded infront of millions of spectators there and all over the country, as this was on live television.