judith arlene resnik (april 5, 1949 – january 28, 1986) was an american engineer, pilot and nasa astronaut. she died when the space shuttle "challenger" was destroyed during the launch of mission sts-51-l. she was also aboard space shuttle "discovery" for its first mission, sts-41-d in 1984. she spent 145 hours in space. she was the first jewish american in space and the first jewish woman in space.