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



NASA distributed flags and patches flown on the ill-fated STS-51L space shuttle mission in 1986. Thirty years later, those plaques are not easily located on public display. (Smithsonian)
January 28, 2016

– 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.

Originally put on the orbiter as mementos of NASA's 25th space shuttle mission, the flags and patches now took on a different role – as memorials for the astronauts lost in the U.S. space program's first tragedy during flight.

"This flag and patch were flown as part of the Official Flight Kit aboard orbiter Challenger, STS-51L January 28, 1986," read the walnut and aluminum plaques on which the flags and patches were mounted for presentation. Along the top of the plexiglas-covered displays were inscribed the words "In Commemoration" above portraits of the astronauts who died: Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka and Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis and S. Christa McAuliffe.


NASA's STS-51L crew members pose for photos during a break in countdown training for their January 1986 launch. (NASA)

Eight months to the day after the loss, NASA announced it would distribute a flown STS-51L patch, an American flag and a state or territory banner to each of the 50 U.S. states and territories. The space agency did not direct where the plaques had to go, but made a request that the mementos be "displayed appropriately in memorial to the crew."

Now, 30 years later, where are those plaques today?

Presenting the plaques

NASA had the STS-51L flag and patch displays produced in time for the first anniversary of the accident in January 1987. Plaques were then distributed to the states over that next year.

For example, astronaut Manley "Sonny" Carter presented the Challenger mementos to his home state of Georgia on Dec. 11, 1986. Governor Frank Harris accepted the plaque and said that it would be put on permanent display in the Capitol building in Atlanta, according to local news reports from that day.


An example of the STS 51-L flags and patch plaques presented by NASA to the U.S. states and territories. (NASA)

Two months later on Feb. 19, 1987, NASA astronaut Ken Cameron traveled to Hartford, Connecticut to present Gov. William O'Neill with the state's STS-51L flags and patch.

"This plaque ... helps represent the spirit of exploration — the spirit the crew lived by, believed in and gave their lives for ultimately," said Cameron, who as a boy spent a part of his youth in Connecticut, reported the Associated Press.

The next month on March 23, astronaut Richard Richards was in Salt Lake City to present a plaque to the governor of Utah.

"These flags will serve as a reminder of the tremendous sacrifice made by the seven astronauts," Utah's Governor Norman Bangerter said, noting the plaque would be held in his office until it could go on display in the Capitol building.

A similar presentation was held in Idaho on May 1, 1987.

"It will be put in an appropriate place where it will be seen by the people who come to the Statehouse to visit," stated Gov. Cecil Andrus after astronaut Jim Adamson presented the plaque during a ceremony held in Boise.

Three decades later

Despite statements about permanent displays at the time, it is not clear where many of the Challenger flag and patch plaques are today.

Renovations to the buildings and just the passage of time may have contributed to some of the 51L memorials being relocated, statehouse representatives said. The curator for Utah's Capitol, for example, said that the plaque may have been exhibited in the building in the past, but after a 2004 restoration was no longer there.

A recent search for the Challenger plaques located only a few on public display, including:

  • New York

    : In Garden City, at the Cradle of Aviation Museum

  • Ohio

    : At the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta

  • New Mexico

    : At the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo (currently in storage as the area where it previously hung is being renovated)


The Challenger memorial flags and patch plaque presented to New Mexico, as temporarily held in storage at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo. (NMMSH)

NASA prepared similar plaques for organizations that flew items on board Challenger. For example, a small "Learning and Liberty" flag that was to have been flown in space for the National School Public Relations Association is now at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas.

Similarly a plaque displaying flown STS-51L and Air Force Satellite Control Facility patches was at one time displayed at the Onizuka Air Force Station in California until it closed in 2010. (The base, which was earlier known as Sunnyvale Air Force Station, was renamed in 1986 for the Challenger astronaut, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force.)

Perhaps the best known example of the memorial plaques is at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. On exhibit in the "Moving Beyond Earth" gallery, which is devoted to the history of the space shuttle, it was joined by a similar flown patch plaque after the loss of space shuttle Columbia on Feb. 1, 2003.

Do you know where a Challenger memorial flag and patch plaque is displayed today? Please contact collectSPACE.


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Where are the Challenger flag and patch plaques today?


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Last update: January 30, 2020

Alabama
 

Alaska
 

Arizona
 

Arkansas
 

California
 

Colorado
 

Connecticut
 

Delaware
 

Florida
 

Georgia
 

Hawaii
 

Idaho
 

Illinois
 
Illinois State Capitol
Springfield, Illinois
Indiana
 

Iowa
 

Kansas
 
Cosmosphere
Hutchinson, Kansas
Kentucky
 

Lousiana
 

Maine
 

Maryland
 
Maryland State House
Annapolis, Maryland
Massachusetts
 

Michigan
 
Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum
(in storage) Portage, Michigan
Minnesota
 
Minnesota Historical Society (in storage)
St. Paul, Minnesota
Mississippi
 

Missouri
 
Missouri State Museum
Jefferson City, Missouri
Montana
 
Montana Historical Society (in storage)
Helena, Montana
Nebraska
 
Mueller Planetarium at Morrill Hall
University of Nebraska State Museum
Lincoln, Nebraska
Nevada
 

New Hampshire
 

New Jersey
 

New Mexico
 
New Mexico Museum of Space History
Alamogordo, New Mexico
New York
 
Cradle of Aviation Museum
Garden City, New York
North Carolina
 
North Carolina Museum of History
Raleigh, North Carolina
North Dakota
 

Ohio
 
Armstrong Air and Space Museum
Wapakoneta, Ohio
Oklahoma
 
Oklahoma Museum of History
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oregon
 

Pennsylvania
 

Rhode Island
 

South Carolina
 
South Carolina State Museum
Columbia, South Carolina
South Dakota
 
South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center
Pierre, South Dakota
Tennessee
 

Texas
 

Utah
 
Utah Division of State History (in storage)
Salt Lake City, Utah
Vermont
 
Vermont History Center
Barre, Vermont
Virginia
 

Washington
 

West Virginia
 

Wisconsin
 

Wyoming
 

 

Washington, DC
 
National Air and Space Museum
Washington, DC