He minus 15 seconds.

entering into the 90s, a few organizations in history had so sterling a reputation as Ness.

That all changed in a matter of seconds on January 28th, 1986.

Roger Brownish

Challenger. The Challenger Shadow launch was an historical event in the making.

Two years prior, President Ronald Reagan had introduced the Teacher in Space Project, a proposal aimed at inspiring

students, encouraging educators, and generating interest in the STEM fields by bringing teachers to space.

Krista McAuliffe, a high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, was the very first person awarded a spot.

17% of all Americans tuned in live to watch,

many of them classes of school children. And then... And then...

Flyer

...

flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation.

Obviously a major malfunction.

In the aftermath, through investigations and hearings,

it was revealed that the challenge of failure was a result,

not of random occurrence or lack of know-how.

It was human oversight.

Managers and executives overseeing the operation had failed to take proper precautions regarding a component of the rocket boosters called O-rings, which engineers had advice were liable to fail under the below freezing temperature of that January day.

They decided to push forward despite those warnings and everybody aboard Challenger died when the aircraft exploded 73 seconds into its flight.

We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded.

Flight Director confirms that.

...