Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes - Jan 28th 1986

January 28th, 1986. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in 11th grade at the time, and we were watching it, live in Science class.

We all took our seats, and started in anticipation to watch the countdown.

This was a very exciting event, it gave us all a 'free period' which was always nice, and I personally had never seen a shuttle launch.

Countdown - LAUNCH. Within 73 seconds, the shuttle exploded, killing seven of it's passengers , 5 NASA astronauts and 2 payload specialists, we all just sat there, jaws dropped, wondering what the hell we just witnessed.

One of the payload specialists was Christa McAuliffe who was a teacher. This was huge, and was the main reason we were permitted to watch the launch in school.

After the disaster NASA suspended the program for 32 months. It led to an extensive investigation and the formation of the Rogers Commission , appointed by president Reagan to find out how this tragedy occurred.

The Rogers Commission determined that NASA had a flaw in the construction of its O-rings and that the temperature to launch that day was most likely too cold to launch. NASA never properly tested a shuttle launch in those cool conditions.