The Challenger space shuttle tragedy

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 28 January 1986, a space shuttle launch went wrong.

Six astronauts and a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, were killed.

In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan had announced that Nasa would search for a member of the public to accompany experienced astronauts on the space shuttle Challenger.

Barbara Morgan was chosen as the teacher backup and had trained alongside the Challenger team.

She watched as the shuttle was destroyed a little more than a minute after take-off.

In 2012, Barbara Morgan spoke to Chloe Hadjimatheou.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Launch of Space Shuttle Challenger. Credit: Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:10.3	Hi, this is Witness History from the BBC World Service.
0:14.8	Now, if this is one of your favourite podcasts already, feel free to skip ahead a little bit.
0:19.4	But if you're listening for the very first time,
0:21.5	welcome. We're the podcast that takes you back to a moment in history by speaking to those who
0:26.6	are there. Episodes are just nine minutes long and come out every weekday. If that sounds like
0:32.0	something you'd listen to, hit subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts and turn on your notifications so you never miss an episode.
0:40.9	It's 40 years since the Challenger disaster.
0:43.7	Chloe Hadjamithew is taking you back to January 1986 and the launch of a space shuttle,
0:49.7	which resulted in the death of six astronauts and a teacher.
0:53.0	We have main engine start.
0:55.7	Four, three, two, one.
0:59.3	And lift-off.
1:00.9	Lift-off of the 25th Space Shuttle Mission, and it has cleared the tower.
1:05.6	It's January 28, 1986, and Mission 51L has just launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
1:13.9	On board are six astronauts and the first civilian to be chosen to go into space,
1:18.9	a 37-year-old social studies teacher, Krista McCalliffe.
1:31.4	At the Space Center, friends and family are watching the launch,
1:35.5	including a group of 100 children from Krista's school in New Hampshire.
1:40.8	Also watching is Krista's standby, Barbara Morgan, a teacher from Idaho.
1:47.5	I remember saying, by Krista, by crew, and waving and Godspeed, and I'm so excited for you. I remember thinking, gosh, I wish I were with you.
1:50.7	Challenger now heading down range.
	...

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