WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

In this image, Space Shuttle Challenger waits on Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center before its first mission, STS-6, launched on April 4, 1983. Originally built as a test vehicle, in 1979 NASA issued a contract to convert it to a fully space-rated orbiter. It became the second operational Shuttle, delivered to Kennedy Space Center in July 1982. Challenger was destroyed shortly after lift off on her 10th mission, STS-51L, on January 28, 1986.