Challenger Disaster
On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger took off on its last flight before being decommissioned. But suddenly, hot gases from the rocket slipped past the O-rings in two of the shuttle’s SRB segments.
And 73 seconds after the launch, the right SRB triggered the rupture of the external fuel tank causing liquid hydrogen and oxygen to ignite, which led to the Challenger’s explosion that killed seven astronauts. The malfunction set NASA back $5.5 billion, and the families of those lost were inconsolable.