Michael J. Smith
American - (NASA)
Lost In Flight
Date of Birth: April 30, 1945
Date of Death: Jan. 28, 1986
Michael John Smith was an American astronaut—pilot of the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the STS-51-L mission. All seven crew members died.
Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-51-L
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of AmericaKennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Jan. 28, 1986, 4:38 p.m.
Status: Failure
Mission:
The tenth mission for Challenger, STS-51-L was scheduled to deploy the second in a series of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, carry out the first flight of the Shuttle-Pointed Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN-203) / Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable in order to observe Halley's Comet, and carry out several lessons from space as part of the Teacher in Space Project and Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP).
Low Earth OrbitThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 12-2
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USAA batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Electron
StriX Launch 6
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New ZealandSynthetic aperture radar satellites for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.
Falcon 9
Bandwagon 2 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USADedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers…
Long March 3
TJSW-12
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaChinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.
Ceres-1S
Tianqi 33-36
Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship - Sea Launch4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.
