How NASA prepared to cope with disaster: Extensive plans were in place to mitigate the effects of a shuttle failure, whether on the launch pad or aloft

In early February, in the wake of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger a minute and a half after liftoff on the morning of Jan. 28, President Ronald Reagan appointed a commission to investigate the causes of the disaster. He has given the commission four months to analyze photographs of the scene, telemetry, debris, safety procedures, historical information, and other data to try to determine what happened.