Two space shuttles have exploded in the history of the Space Shuttle program:
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Challenger: On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard.
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Columbia: On February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board.
Both disasters resulted in the loss of all crew members on board and led to the suspension of Space Shuttle flights for a period of time. The Space Shuttle program was retired in July 2011 after 135 missions, including the catastrophic failures of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 which killed a total of 14 astronauts.
