Forty years (and one day) ago, hundreds of people gathered at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida and millions worldwide watched on live TV to see the tenth launch of the Challenger, where the first civilian would be going to space on a shuttle mission. Just over a minute after launch, the sky was filled with smoke, flames, and debris. The mission had quickly become unsuccessful and the public was in total shock. Join me today as I discuss the Challenger Disaster—the before, during, and aftermath of it all—and other interesting space tidbits that I learned along the way.

Research:

General information: https://www.history.com/articles/challenger-disaster

Space shuttle deep-dive: https://www.nasa.gov/space-shuttle/#:~:text=Starting%20with%20Columbia%20and%20continuing,space%2C%20the%20International%20Space%20Station. 

James Webb Telescope: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

Book:

Challenger by Adam Higginbotham

Music by Tim Beek. "Unicorn" by Tim Beek (timbeek.com)