posted 01-28-2016 07:00 AM               

Space shuttle Challenger's fallen flags and mission patches, 30 years later

The flags and patches were found the next day, floating in the Atlantic Ocean, among the debris from the fallen space shuttle Challenger.

The nylon banners and embroidered emblems, packaged in watertight pouches, were intended for NASA employees and other supporters of the 51-L mission, to be distributed after Challenger and its seven-member crew returned from orbiting the Earth for six days. Instead, 73 seconds into the flight, a problem with a solid rocket booster resulted in the Challenger breaking apart.

posted 01-28-2022 07:00 AM               

Challenger artifacts intended for President Reagan recovered after 36 years

Artifacts that were recovered from the fallen space shuttle Challenger and prepared for presentation to the President of the United States have been recovered again, 36 years later, after they surfaced at auction among the collection of a NASA liaison to the White House.

Little is known about how or why the late James Foster Fanseen, who died in 2000, had come into possession of the small American flag and crew patch that were mounted to a plaque and inscribed to "Ronald Reagan, President of the United States." Once recognized for it was, though, the artifacts were restored to the proper hands, now at the Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.