Was Sally Ride on the Challenger that blew up?

American astronaut and physicist Sally Ride was not on the space shuttle Challenger during the tragic accident that occurred on January 28, 1986. The Challenger disintegrated just 73 seconds after liftoff, resulting in the loss of all seven crew members.

The crew members on the Challenger included the command Dick Scobee. Michael Smith the pilot, and the mission specialists Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair.

The other  two payload specialists were Gregory Jarvis, who was assigned to conduct research for the Hughes Aircraft Company, and Christa McAuliffe, who flew as part of the Teacher in Space Project

The Challenger disaster was a devastating event in the history of space exploration, and it led to a suspension of the Space Shuttle program for several years while investigations and safety improvements were conducted.

Although Sally Ride was not on the Challenger that exploded, she had previously travelled on it. She travelled in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger during the STS-7 mission in June 1983.

Sally Ride was in charge of the robotic arm that deployed and retrieved SPAS-1. Her second space trip was the STS-41-G mission aboard Challenger in 1984. She was in orbit for a total of 343 hours.