Jan. 27, 1967 — Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee die when a fire
sweeps their command module during a ground test.

April 24, 1967 — Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when his spacecraft crashes on return to Earth.

June 29, 1971 — Cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev die
during re-entry of their spacecraft. A government commission disclosed that the three died 30 minutes before landing because a faulty valve had depressurized the spacecraft.

Jan. 28, 1986 — The shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch, killing seven
astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, intended to be the first teacher in space. Others killed
were Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair
and Gregory Jarvis.

Feb. 1, 2003 — The shuttle Columbia breaks apart in flames about 207,000 feet over Texas, 16 minutes before it was supposed to touch down in Florida. All seven aboard were killed: William McCool, Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon.

— The Associated Press