CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four decades ago, on another unusually cold day along the Space Coast, America witnessed one of the most heartbreaking moments in space history — the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger and its seven-member crew.
A Nation Watching Live
On January 28, 1986, millions of Americans — including countless schoolchildren — tuned in to watch Challenger’s tenth mission. It was a launch that felt routine, but unique: Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher from New Hampshire, was on board, poised to become the first civilian in space.
Classrooms across the country were watching live.
I still remember being in my second-grade class, gathered around the “AV cart” — that big television we rolled from room to room for special events — knowing we were about to see history.
Seventy-three seconds after liftoff, we did — but not the history anyone expected.
What Went Wrong
The investigation into the disaster revealed that a rubber seal called an “O-ring” in the shuttle’s right solid rocket booster failed. The unusually cold temperatures that morning had made it brittle, allowing hot gases to escape and trigger a rupture in the main fuel tank.
The explosion tore through the sky, live on national television.
Watch archive clips from the launch below:
A President’s Words and a Nation United
That afternoon, President Ronald Reagan addressed a stunned, grieving nation.
Speaking directly to schoolchildren, he reassured them that the future of exploration would continue, honoring the Challenger crew’s courage.
His most enduring line: the astronauts had “slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.”
The End of “Routine”
The Challenger tragedy shattered the belief that shuttle flights had become as safe and predictable as air travel.
NASA halted launches for nearly three years, making sweeping safety changes and fundamentally rethinking how missions were planned and executed.
Ohio’s Connection
Those lost that day were Commander Francis “Dick” Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe — and Judith Resnik, an engineer, mission specialist and proud Akron, Ohio native.
Resnik — only the second American woman in space — was a trailblazer, a gifted engineer and a symbol of our state’s long tradition of contributing to space exploration. Schools, streets and lectureships across Ohio now bear her name, keeping her memory alive.
40 Years Later
Today, 40 years later, the Challenger crew is remembered not only for their sacrifice but also for their spirit of exploration.
Their loss remains a reminder of the risks — and rewards — of reaching beyond our grasp.
In Florida, a memorial ceremony was held at the Kennedy Space Center, where Challenger pilot Michael Smith’s daughter, Alison Smith Balch, said through tears that her life forever changed that frigid morning, as did many other lives. “In that sense,” she told the hundreds of mourners, “we are all part of this story.”
“Every day I miss Mike,” added his widow, Jane Smith-Holcott, “every day’s the same.”
Challenger’s crew included schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was selected from thousands of applicants representing every state. Two of her fellow teacher-in-space contenders — both retired now — attended the memorial.
“We were so close together,” said Bob Veilleux, a retired astronomy high school teacher from New Hampshire, McAuliffe’s home state.
Bob Foerster, a sixth grade math and science teacher from Indiana who was among the top 10 finalists, said he’s grateful that space education blossomed after the accident and that it didn’t just leave Challenger’s final crew as “martyrs.”
“It was a hard reality,” Foerster noted at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy’s visitor complex.
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