Gregory Jarvis, born August 24, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan, died during the Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51-L) disaster on January 28, 1986. He was a payload specialist for Hughes Aircraft and it was his first mission into space. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004.
Front row (L-R): Michael J. Smith, Francis "Dick" Scobee, Ronald McNair.
STS-51-L Mission patch
Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51-L), launched January 28, 1986, exploded 73 seconds after launch. The cause of the disaster was determined to have been a failure of an O-ring seal on the starboard Solid Rocket Booster. The disaster grounded the space shuttle program for 32 months. Its crew consisted of Commander Francis Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe. All crew perished in the disaster.
