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Remembering space shuttle Challenger: Five ways it changed spaceflight

Twenty-five years ago Friday, the space shuttle Challenger came to a tragic end, exploding on liftoff and claiming the lives of seven astronauts. Here are five ways the Challenger pushed spaceflight forward.

5. More flexible landing sites

AP File
In this 1986 file picture, members of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident walk past the solid rocket boosters and the external tank of a shuttle being fitted in the Vehicle Assembly building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

  • By Aaron Couch

Though NASA shuttles launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, they landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. But on Feb 11, 1984, Challenger became the first shuttle to land at the Kennedy Space Center, saving the week it usually took a shuttle to piggyback a ride back to Florida. Earlier, Challenger had become the first shuttle to launch and land at night.

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