 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2022) |
 | This timeline of spaceflight may require cleanup to ensure consistency with other timeline of spaceflight articles. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Timeline of spaceflight working group for guidelines on how to improve the article. Details Concerns have been raised that:
|  |
 | |
| National firsts | |
|---|---|
| Satellite |  Sweden |
| Rockets | |
| Maiden flights | Ariane 2 |
| Retirements | Ariane 1 Space Shuttle Challenger |
| Crewed flights | |
| Orbital | 2 |
| Total travellers | 9 |
The year 1986 saw the destruction of Space Shuttle Challenger shortly after lift-off, killing all seven aboard,[1] the first in-flight deaths of American astronauts. This accident followed the successful flight of Columbia just weeks earlier,[2] and dealt a major setback to the U.S. crewed space program, suspending the Shuttle program for 32 months.[3]
The year also saw numerous fly-bys of Halley's Comet as well as other successes.
- ^ "NASA - STS-51L Mission Profile". NASA.gov. NASA. 19 January 2016. Archived from the original on 5 May 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Mission Archives: STS-61-C". NASA.gov. NASA. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Mission Archives: STS-26". NASA.gov. NASA. Archived from the original on 3 August 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2017.