Core Stage that makes it more than just a big fuel tank is the Main Propulsion System (MPS). All the equipment for the care and feeding of uprated Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), adapted for ...

and NASA suspended space shuttle flights for more than two years as it investigated the disaster. Investigators found that a piece of foam had broken off of the shuttle's external fuel tank during ...

On this date, Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded just ... booster and essentially burned a hole in the external fuel tank, basically making the tank and its liquid fuel contents ...

For millions, it was an event that would be seared into their memories for the rest of their lives – on par with the Kennedy assassination and 9/11.

A statement from the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident indicated the crew probably survived the fuel tank blast but ultimately died nearly three minutes later when ...

On this date, Jan. 16, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia launched on its ill-fated flight on the STS-107 mission. During liftoff, a frozen chunk of foam from the external fuel tank would fall off ...

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the date of the Space Shuttle Columbia ... an explosion of the external fuel tank. The Rogers Commission, an external ...