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Selected Congressional Hearings and Reports from the Challenger Space Shuttle Accident: Main Page

Space Shuttle Challenger.On February 1, 2003, NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart while returning to Earth from a 16-day science mission in orbit. Following the tragedy, a series of congressional hearings were held, including a joint hearing between the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Science Committee (February 12); and a House Science Committee hearing on implications of the Columbia accident on NASA programs and budget (February 27). The following publications were assembled for Congress as background materials for these hearings. Documents are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

Hearings and Reports Organized by Date

  • Apollo 13 Mission - (Hearing) U.S. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences.
    • Date: 91st Congress, 2nd Session, April 24, 1970
    • Pages: 64 (3.6 MB)
  • The Apollo 13 Accident - (Hearing) U.S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics.
    • Date: 91st Congress, 2nd Session, June 16, 1970
    • Pages: 277 (11.3 MB)
  • Apollo 13 Mission Review - (Hearing) U.S. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences.
    • Date: 91st Congress, 2nd Session, June 30, 1970
    • Pages: 124 (8.39 MB)
  • Space Shuttle Accident - (Hearing) U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. Hearing on the Space Shuttle Accident and the Rogers Commission Report.
    • Date: 99th Congress, 2nd Session, February 18, June 10 and 17, 1986
    • Pages: 219 (14.2 MB)
  • Investigation of the Challenger Accident - (Hearing) U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology
    • Volume 1
      • Date: 99th Congress, 2nd Session, June 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 25, 1986
      • Pages: 778 (38.7 MB)
        • Due to its size, this hearing has been divided into two smaller files.
          Part 1 - Pages 1-325 (17.6 MB) | Part 2 - Pages 326-778 (21 MB)
    • Volume 2
      • Date: 99th Congress, 2nd Session, July 15, 16, 23, 24, 1986
      • Pages: 591 (20.9 MB)
        • Due to its size, this hearing has been divided into two smaller files.
          Part 1 - Pages 1-327 (15.5 MB) | Part 2 - Pages 328-591 (5.32 MB)
  • Investigation of the Challenger Accident - (Report) U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology.
    • Date: 99th Congress, 2nd Session, October 29, 1986
    • Pages: 450 (19.8 MB)
      • Due to its size, this report has been divided into two smaller files.
        Part 1 - Pages 1-182 (10.7 MB) | Part 2 - Pages 183-450 (8.9 MB)
  • Space Shuttle Oversight - (Hearing) U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. (Hearing on Oversight of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Shuttle Redesign Activities)
    • Date: 100th Congress, 1st Session, January 22, 1987
    • Pages: 170 (9.23 MB)

Other Services

  • Purchase a CD-ROM of the Selected Congressional Hearings and Reports on the Challenger Space Shuttle Accident from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore.
  • Locate these congressional hearings and reports in a local Federal depository library.