On January 28th, 1986, an event occurred that would be remembered by almost everyone alive at the time.

73 seconds into its flight, the space shuttle challenger was destroyed by a violent explosion,

killing all seven astronauts on board.

In addition to being seared into the minds of those who witnessed the tragedy, the event

forever changed how space flights were conducted.

Learn more about the space shuttle Challenger disaster, how it happened, and its aftermath,

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. Space Shuttle Mission STS 51L was scheduled to be the 25th flight of a space shuttle

and the 10th flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

By 1986, Space Shuttle launches might not have been routine, but they also weren't special events anymore either.

STS 51L was to be a special mission, however.

It was scheduled to launch a satellite and make observations from space of Haley's Comet.

Most importantly, the flight was to have the first teacher to be flown into space.

On the behest of President Ronald Reagan in 1984, NASA unveiled the Teacher in Space Project.

The Teacher in Space Project was to be pretty straightforward.

Fine teachers who are not astronauts but common civilians send them to to space and when they return they could

then travel to classrooms to tell students about their experience.

Over 11,000 teachers applied for the Teacher in Space Project.

After several rounds of eliminations, the teacher selected to be the first in space

was a high school social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire by the name of Krista McAuliffe.

McAuliffe was scheduled to teach two 15 minute lessons from space during the mission.

In addition to Krista McAuliffe, the other six astronauts were Commander Richard Scobee,

pilot Michael Smith, Mission Specialist Ronald McNair, Allison Onazuka, and Judith Resnick, and Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis.

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