Forty years ago, on January 28, 1986, millions of people across the United States—including school kids—witnessed a shocking disaster live on TV. The space shuttle Challenger exploded only moments after launch, tragically killing all seven people on board. The crew included Christa McAuliffe, a high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire. She’d been selected to join the mission as part of NASA’s brand-new “Teachers in Space” project.
Remembering Challenger
NASA/JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
THE CHALLENGER CREW: Back row, left to right: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judith Resnik. Front row, left to right: Mike Smith, Francis “Dick” Scobee, Ronald McNair.
NASA
A NATIONAL TRAGEDY: The Challenger space shuttle, seconds before the explosion
The launch had taken place on an unusually chilly morning. Investigators later determined that the catastrophe happened because one part of the rocket’s engines didn’t function properly in the cold.
It would be nearly three years before NASA launched another shuttle. During that time, the program made many important changes. Engineers designed brand-new rockets, which were closely inspected. These rockets were used successfully for the next 23 years, until NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011.
Skills Sheets
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Skills Sheets
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Lesson Plan
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Text-to-Speech