The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The explosion occurred due to a failure in one of the rocket boosters, which caused the shuttle to break apart. The crew cabin, which was made of reinforced aluminum, separated in one piece from the rest of the orbiter and traveled in a ballistic arc, reaching the apogee of 65,000 feet approximately 25 seconds after the explosion. The remains of the crew were badly damaged from impact and submersion, and were not intact bodies.

The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on February 1, 2003, as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board. The disaster occurred due to a piece of insulating foam breaking off from the Space Shuttle external tank and striking the thermal protection system tiles on the orbiters left wing during launch. This caused damage to the wing, which allowed atmospheric gases to enter the shuttle during its reentry, causing it to overheat and break apart.

Therefore, the spaceship that exploded was the Space Shuttle Challenger.