when did us space program resumes after challenger tragedy
STS-26 STS-26 was the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter Discovery. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 29 September 1988, and landed four days later on 3 October. STS-26 was declared the "Return to Flight" mission, being the first mission after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 28 January 1986. It was the first mission since STS-9 to use the original STS numbering system, the first to have all its crew members wear pressure suits for launch and landing since STS-4, and the first mission with bailout capacity since STS-4. STS-26 was also the first all-veteran crew mission since Apollo 11, with all of its crew members having flown at least one prior mission.
Challenger Deep On 26 March 2012 (local time), Canadian film director James Cameron made a solo manned descent in the DSV Deepsea Challenger to the bottom of the Challenger Deep.[9][10][11][26] At approximately 05:15 ChST on 26 March (19:15 UTC on 25 March), the descent began.[27] At 07:52 ChST (21:52 UTC), Deepsea Challenger arrived at the bottom. The descent lasted 2 hours and 36 minutes and the recorded depth was 10,898.4 metres (35,756 ft) when Deepsea Challenger touched down.[28] Cameron had planned to spend about six hours near the ocean floor exploring but decided to start the ascent to the surface after only 2 hours and 34 minutes.[29] The time on the bottom was shortened because a hydraulic fluid leak in the lines controlling the manipulator arm obscured the visibility out the only viewing port. It also caused the loss of the submersible's starboard thrusters.[30] At around 12:00 ChST (02:00 UTC on 26 March), the Deepsea Challenger website says the sub resurfaced after a 90-minute ascent,[31] although Paul Allen's tweets indicate the ascent took only about 67 minutes.[32] During a post-dive press conference Cameron said: "I landed on a very soft, almost gelatinous flat plain. Once I got my bearings, I drove across it for quite a distance ... and finally worked my way up the slope." The whole time, Cameron said, he didn't see any fish, or any living creatures more than an inch (2.54 cm) long: "The only free swimmers I saw were small amphipods"—shrimplike bottom-feeders.[33]