Forty years ago this January, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated on its way into orbit. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

In the days after the tragedy, the world wanted answers. What really caused the shuttle to explode? And should the launch have been stopped altogether?

For season five of Science Friction, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Fiona Pepper investigate how the Challenger disaster unfolded — and what that has meant for space exploration from 1986 to now.

The Challenger Legacy is a five-part series from Science Friction. Out now — search Science Friction and The Challenger Legacy.

It's the trial everyone in Darwin is talking about. In February 2022, a helicopter on a crocodile egg collection mission crashed in remote Arnhem Land, killing the egg collector and paralysing the pilot.

The search for Robert Bogucki brought together a cast of colourful characters, including a cigar-toting, moustachioed American named Garrison ‘Gunslinger’ St Clair.    

A quarter of a century after he survived the Great Sandy Desert, Robert Bogucki is back for an odd-couple road trip with the Aboriginal tracker who helped search for him all those years ago. 

After almost six weeks in the desert, Robert Bogucki is found alive in what quickly becomes known as ‘The miracle in the desert’. But now he has to survive the tabloid television treatment and a fierce public backlash.

After years obsessing over the case, Erin Parke has made contact with the elusive and enigmatic Robert Bogucki.  

Robert Bogucki has been given up for dead, but the drama’s only just beginning.  

The clock is ticking to bring Robert Bogucki out of the desert alive, and police turn to Aboriginal trackers to try to find their man.

When a bicycle is found abandoned on a remote track in the Great Sandy Desert it triggers an urgent search. Who is this mystery man and why has he walked into one of Australia’s deadliest landscapes?  

It’s 1999, and a young American man is missing in the Australian outback. Police soon realise there’s something very strange about this case – the man appears to have plunged into the desert on purpose, and seemingly doesn’t want to be found.