Archival: Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster | NBC Nightly News

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members on board. “It happened just over one minute into flight,” NBC’s Dan Molina reported that day on NBC Nightly News. “From mission control: silence.”

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Archival: Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster | NBC Nightly News

[someguywithmusic]

And it was the first time a teacher was to go to space. Her students were so excited, as well as her. The poor students had to watch their own teacher get obliterated. God bless them for dedicating their life to space exploration and mankind. Today is the 35th anniversary.

[karimbeldi]

Feel bad for the kids who watched their teacher die, must’ve been traumatic

[ashaa]

It's so sad to think about how excited they must've been and to probably finally achieve their dream. They got all that way for nothing.

[amandabruney]

Was in 11th grade science class watching launch when Challenger exploded. Still hits me hard watching and remembering what I felt that day

[chiefkeyes]

rest in peace astronauts we will never forget 😢😞

[ChibiAnimate]

Just remember that Big Bird attempted to join this mission to get kids interested in space. We all would’ve saw Big Bird explode.

[MaestroDraven]

I was 8 years old when this happened. Watched it live with my parents on TV. I can remember every single thing about that day, from the way the sun was shining through the windows, to the type of carpeting we had in the house at the time. It was one of those memories that will stick with me forever, permanently etched into my psyche.

[ghostchick]

I remember watching this in Elementary school. We all cried & we were let go early. Such a horrible day. 😪

[SuperHuscarl]

This is much like when people saw the 9/11 attacks while in school. Just a tragedy.

[glssbead]

I come back to this a lot and remember the 7 brave people we lost that day. I’m only 14 and wasn’t around when it happened but it still hits me hard, seeing the families sobbing understanding they just lost their child

[majortom]

Bless those brave souls who lost their lives on that day

[joyl]

Just here to salute the heroes of Challenger on this day 35 years later.

[jimmypark]

I was in 4th grade when this happened, and we were watching live in class cheering because the teacher was going up in space. It was super sad day when we realize it exploded and people died.

[MultiCerebrum]

34th anniversary today. We will never forget.

[Nflguy]

I was nine years old when this happened. Pretty crazy to learn as an adult that the engineers warned them not to launch the shuttle because it was too cold in the O-rings wouldn’t function correctly creating a dangerous situation. NASA management overruled them and launched anyway. Also frightening to discover that despite how it appeared it was not a giant fireball that killed the astronauts instantly. The astronauts were alive until crashing into the water.

[bobbobby]

The fact that they survived the explosion, crashed into the ocean, and drowned is so sad, they trained their entire life

[johno]

On a personal note, one of the crew, Ron McNair, was a keen sax player and was friendly with musician Jean-Michel Jarre. Ron had written a piece and they'd arranged for Ron to take his saxophone up with him together with tape equipment to record it whilst in orbit. It was to be the first piece of music recorded in space. Ron was very excited about doing it and Jarre was going to incorporate it into a track on his forthcoming album 'Rendez-vous'. Following the disaster a stand-in later performed the piece as a tribute to Ron after consultation with his family and it appears on the album as The Last Rendez-Vous (Ron's piece). A haunting and moving piece of music.

[heema_]

I was 7, I remember watching this, it was a weekday and I had a cold, I remeber watching it live and I kept asking my mom, they're alive right? they're OK, right?

[mightbeiguess]

My relative went to school with Judy Resnik, one of the astronauts. Rest In Peace to all those who were on the spaceship.

[emmett]

irrelevant to how we feel or how the people there felt or the scientists after this failure, imagine what their families felt like watching them explode in front of their eyes with absolutely nothing they could do about it.💔