Human remains of the Challenger crew were found eventually after a 3 month search and recovery operation.
The crew compartment, which contained the human remains of the Challenger crew and many other fragments of the shuttle were recovered from the ocean floor, after the 3 month search and recovery operation.
The Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into it's flight on January 28th 1986 and killed all 7 crew members aboard.
The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida at 16:39:13 UTC or 11:39:13 a.m. EST.
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was the first fatal accident that involved an American spacecraft while in flight.
The mission, which was designated STS-51-L, was the 10th flight for the orbiter and the 25th flight of the Space Shuttle fleet.
And the crew were also scheduled to deploy a commercial communications satellite and also study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher in Space Project.
The latter task resulted in a higher than unusual media interest in and coverage of the mission and the launch and the subsequent disaster were seen live in many schools across the United States.
The cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was the result of the failure of the primary and secondary O-ring seals in a joint in the right Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster.
The record low temperatures on the morning of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, which reduced their ability to seal the joints.
And shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached and hot pressurized gas from within the SRB had leaked through the joint and burned through the aft attachment strut that connected it to the external propellant tank and then into the tank itself.
The collapse of the ET's internal structures and the rotation of the SRB that followed propelled the shuttle stack, traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92 into a direction which allowed aerodynamic forces to tear the orbiter apart.
And continued to fly uncontrollably until the range safety officer destroyed them.
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster is different from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.