<P> STS - 51 - L was the 25th mission of the United States Space Shuttle program , and disastrous final mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger . The mission to carry out several lessons from space and observe Halley 's Comet never made its target landing date of February 3 , 1986 . A structural failure during its ascent phase 73 seconds after launch on January 28 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 killed all seven crew members -- Commander Dick Scobee , Pilot Michael J. Smith , Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka , Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair , and Payload Specialists Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe -- and destroyed the orbiter . The Rogers Commission determined that the cause of the destruction was due to the failure of an O - ring seal on the starboard Solid Rocket Booster ( SRB ) . Space Shuttle flights were suspended for 32 months while the hazards with the shuttle were addressed . </P>
what was the purpose of the last challenger mission
to carry out several lessons from space and observe Halley 's Comet