Where is the Shuttle Challenger?

Question

After the first terrible shuttle disaster back in 1986 some of it's pieces were recovered for a thourough investigation into the cause. Way after the conclusion of this accident I 'read' that the challenger pieces (together with bits of it's external tank and SRB's) were kept (or are kept) in a large room or small hall possibly on NASA premises and no one has seen these pieces for many, many years (possibly more then 15 years) as to gain entry you need 3 seperate keys which are held by 3 seperate people etc. I wondered if this is true or total nonsence?

Where is she now?

Answer 1

Challenger and Columbia are both stored in below-ground silos (like missile silos) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida (possibly at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next to the Space Center). Each was sealed without ceremony after the investigative reports for each accident were completed. The silos are not accessible by the public. I'm not aware of any 'keys', but you would probably need jackhammers, since the silos were apparently covered with concrete.

Answer 2

No, it's not in a super-secret room.  The Columbia and Challenger remnants are in a sealed missile silo capped with concrete.  It is no longer accessible by any ordinary means.

The disassembled Apollo 1 spacecraft is in a dedicated storage facility at NASA/Langley in Hampton, Virginia.  It has been accessed only very infrequently.

Answer 3

Much of it was piled into a test silo at the cape & sealed.  There's a plaque marking it's final resting place.