Has any space missions failed?
STS-51-L: Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
The space shuttle Challenger disaster that occurred on January 28, 1986, marked one of the most devastating days in the history of space exploration.
In any event, it seems reasonable to conclude that about 6 percent of all satellites (large and small) will be lost due to failures of the launch vehicles.
There have been two space shuttles lost due to explosion. The Challenger shuttle exploded in 1986 due to a leak in it's fuel system causing the booster rockets to separate. This was followed on February 1st, 2003 with the Columbia explosion.
(See Table 12.) Of all the 5,038 rockets launched to date, some 4,621 accomplished their mission, with a success rate of 92%. This means that if ever you have to fly anyone of them, you have 11 chances in 12 of getting into space.
Since March 2006, SpaceX has launched 5 Falcon 1 and 171 Falcon 9 rockets. Of these 3 Falcon 1 and 2 Falcon 9 launches were complete failures and one Falcon 9 launch was a partial failure.
NASA has successfully launched 166 crewed flights. Three have ended in failure, causing the deaths of seventeen crewmembers in total: Apollo 1 (which never launched) killed three crew members in 1967, STS-51-L (the Challenger disaster) killed seven in 1986, and STS-107 (the Columbia disaster) killed seven more in 2003.
The number of missions launched is similar to our pre-COVID flight rate and about average for the program for the past 10 years. We achieved a 94% success rate for this year.
They all failed: three at launch; three failed to reach near-Earth orbit; one during the burn to put the spacecraft into trans-Mars trajectory; and two during the interplanetary orbit.
Since June 2010, rockets from the Falcon 9 family have been launched 200 times, with 198 full mission successes, one partial failure and one total loss of the spacecraft. In addition, one rocket and its payload were destroyed on the launch pad during the fueling process before a static fire test was set to occur.
VIDEO: Challenger Explosion
On January 28, 1986, the tenth mission of the space shuttle Challenger ended in tragic disaster. We remember the seven astronauts who lost their lives that day, including Christa McAuliffe, who was chosen by NASA to pioneer its Teacher in Space program.
Has anyone been lost in space yet?
To date, no astronaut has ever been 'lost' to space during one, but there have been a couple close calls. When outside their spacecraft, astronauts attach themselves to the hull with tethers made of heavy-duty materials like kevlar.
On 1 February 2003, Columbia was returning to Earth after a 16-day scientific research mission. They never made it back.