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At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the . She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger 's launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa's family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle broke up in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.
WATCH: The Challenger Disaster on HISTORY Vault
In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled the world's first reusable manned spacecraft, the Enterprise. Five years later, space flights of the shuttle began when Columbia traveled into space on a 54-hour mission. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and carried out various scientific experiments. The Challenger disaster was the first major shuttle accident.

In the aftermath of the disaster, President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission to determine what went wrong with Challenger and to develop future corrective measures. The presidential commission was headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, and included former astronaut Neil Armstrong and former test pilot Chuck Yeager. The investigation determined that the disaster was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the massive loss. As a result, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of features of the space shuttle.
READ MORE: 5 Things You May Not Know About the Challenger Shuttle
In September 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the successful launching of the Discovery. Since then, the space shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, such as the repair and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction of the International Space Station.

On February 1, 2003, a second space-shuttle disaster rocked the United States when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry of the Earth's atmosphere. All aboard were killed. Despite fears that the problems that downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily addressed, space-shuttle flights resumed on July 26, 2005, when Discovery was again put into orbit.

The Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31, 2011 after its final mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.

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The space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after takeoff, killing all the astronauts on board. The tragedy unfolded on live TV with millions watching.

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Program note: Explore the decade that continues to fascinate us today: CNN Original Series "The Eighties" airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. starting March 31.

Story highlights

Try to imagine a world with no social media, no smartphones, no Internet - where a tragedy unfolds and you may not see video or hear about it until hours later.

That's how it was, for the most part, in the 1980s.

Yet, when NASA's Challenger shuttle exploded on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members, the catastrophe unfolded live on a little known 24-hour news channel: CNN.

"I just remember seeing the cloud of smoke and what looked like fireworks coming out from the vehicle," recalled John Zarrella, who covered the launch at Florida's Kennedy Space Center for CNN. "We were all just looking at each other wondering 'OK, what's happened here?'"

READ: Challenger memories, 30 years later

If you were an American kid in 1986, you probably remember exactly where you were: That's because so many classrooms were watching the shuttle launch live via a special NASA satellite feed to showcase what would have been the first American teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.

30 yrs ago the Challenger exploded. Today CHS honors CHS teacher Christa McAuliffe who was killed #wmur @wmur9 pic.twitter.com/ODmPqj2IrK
- Ray Brewer (@RayBrewerWMUR) January 28, 2016

This year marks 30 years since the tragedy unfolded on that cold January day. Even though CNN's live coverage received only a passing mention at the time, it's clear today just how important this moment was in the early days of the information age.

Today - with the advent of numerous round-the-clock news channels, social media and smartphones in nearly everyone's hands - it's expected that we'll witness historical moments live, or moments later.

30 years after the #SpaceShuttle #Challenger exploded, we remember & reflect. pic.twitter.com/37rJg5rsRx
- UCF (@UCF) January 28, 2016

Yet the Challenger disaster came as the young cable channel struggled to figure out its mission.

Video of CNN's behind-the-scenes coverage that day shows former CNN executive Bob Furnad working feverishly at the center of the noisy and cramped control room (the control room, anchor desk and newsroom were all beside each other) at one point shouting for everyone to shut up, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"Working with a young staff with limited experience in putting live, breaking news on the air was amazing," Furnad recently said.

It wasn't common for CNN to turn the cameras on itself, but the network's promotions department just happened to be shooting in the newsroom that day, recalled former CNN staffer Robin Murphy.

"It was hard holding it together while all of that was going on," she said. "It was chaos ... sad, tragic and monumental because of the obvious historic implications ... but, as usual, everyone pulled together. Proud to be a part of CNN that day, as sad as it was."

That moment represented CNN's "coming of age," recalled former CNN operations director Steve Stahl.

"After this coverage, I rarely had to explain to people what CNN was, to people who hadn't seen the network," said Stahl, a video tape operator at the time.

Left side body panel of #Challenger on display in Forever Remember exhibit @NASAKennedy. Powerful sight. pic.twitter.com/wMheoqV1nf
- Mark Lehman (@MarkLehman6) January 28, 2016

CNN recently recreated the energy and chaos of its 1986 newsroom as the Challenger disaster unfolded, in a 360° virtual reality experience (check it out below or on Facebook).

On January 28, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch. CNN was the only national broadcast...
Posted by CNN on Thursday, March 31, 2016

NASA wouldn't experience another tragedy until the loss of space shuttle Columbia in 2003, when a hole in the shuttle's heat shield caused it to disintegrate on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. Seven crew members also died in that accident.

By then, there were three American 24-hour cable news stations - CNN, Fox News and MSNBC - and the Internet was widely available. A few years later, smartphones accelerated the information revolution.

And today, it's hard to imagine a major incident not being captured on video and instantaneously distributed around the world within minutes.

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When a national disaster unfolded live in 1986 | CNN

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Program note: Explore the decade that continues to fascinate us today: CNN Original Series "The Eighties" airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. starting March 31. Try to imagine a world with no social media, no smartphones, no Internet - where a tragedy unfolds and you may not see video or hear about it until hours later.

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This November 1985 file provided by NASA shows the crew of the U.S space shuttle Challenger. Front row, from left: astronauts Mike Smith, Dick Scobee, Ron McNair; back row, from left: Ellison Onizuka, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis and Judith Resnik. (NASA/AFP via Getty Images)

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Bardan, R. (2022, November 10). NASA Views Images, Confirms Discovery of Shuttle Challenger Artifact. NASA. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-views-images-confirms-discovery-of-shuttle-challenger-artifact

Brittany Kasko. (n.d.). Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/person/k/brittany-kasko

Escobedo, T. (2016, March 31). When a national disaster unfolded live in 1986. CNN. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/31/us/80s-cnn-challenger-coverage/index.html

History.com Editors. (2010, February 15). Challenger Explosion. History. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/challenger-disaster

Ignatius, D. (1986, March 30). Did the Media Goad NASA Into the Challenger Disaster? Washington Post. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1986/03/30/did-the-media-goad-nasa-into-the-challenger-disaster/e0c8669d-a809-4c8d-a4f8-50652b892274/

Kasko, B. (2023, January 28). On this day in history, Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger explodes, shocking the nation. Fox News. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/this-day-history-jan-28-1986-space-shuttle-challenger-explodes-shocking-nation

STS-51L Crew Members. (n.d.). Nasa. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/sts_51l_crew_photo_s85-44253.jpg?itok=_5siJzsE

Tricia Escobedo. (n.d.). CNN. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.cnn.com/profiles/tricia-escobedo-profile

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THE CBS EVENING NEWS might have opened this way on the night of Jan. 27: "Caution was the watchword at Cape Canaveral today, as take-no-risk NASA officials decided once again to postpone a launch rather than endanger the crew, which includes school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Bruce Hall in Florida has a report on how NASA is standing firm despite the pressure of a tight launch schedule."

Instead, Dan Rather began his newscast on the eve of the shuttle tragedy this way: "Yet another costly, red-faces-all-around space-shuttle-launch delay. This time a bad bolt on a hatch and a bad-weather bolt from the blue are being blamed. What's more, a rescheduled launch for tomorrow doesn't look good either. Bruce Hall has the latest on today's high-tech low comedy."

Hall reported from Kennedy Space Center that "confidence in NASA's ability to maintain a launch schedule has been rocked by this series of embarrassing technical snafus and weather delays."

He went on to narrate the cause of the latest delay, a door handle that didn't work. Pictures of frustrated technicians in white suits accompanied a narrative of failure: a screw that was stuck, batteries that were too weak to operate a drill, a drill bit that crumbled, and finally, the use of a hacksaw. The piece conveyed the impression that NASA technicians, though prudent and cautious, were bumblers.

The tone of media coverage of NASA on the night of Jan. 27 matters because it may help explain the central mystery of the shuttle tragedy: Why did NASA decide to launch the Challenger the next morning despite extremely cold weather and warnings about O-ring problems? Were therehidden pressures? A White House phone call, perhaps? Or a push from an ambitious NASA manager?

A senior NASA official advanced a theory of his own several weeks ago. He blamed the news media. In an interview with The Washington Post, Richard G. Smith, director of the Kennedy Space Center, argued that news stories about delays and aborted launches in the weeks before the Challenger launch had created "98 percent of the pressure" to go ahead with the ill-fated mission.

Smith explained: "Every time there was a delay, the press would say, 'Look, there's another delay. . . here's a bunch of idiots who can't even handle a launch schedule. . . . You think that doesn't have an impact? If you think it doesn't, you're stupid."

Smith was roundly denounced for his remarks. "NASA's attacks infuriate the presidential investigating panel," reported The Wall Street Journal, noting that one member of the Rogers Commission had complained "of a NASA 'counterattack.'" A letter to The Washington Post chided the "Nixon-like outburst by NASA's Richard Smith pillorying the news media. . . ."

But Smith had a point, and one that deserves to be taken seriously by a profession that has held up a magnifying glass to everything surrounding the shuttle disaster but its own performance.

The news media probably did put pressure on NASA's managers to launch Challenger. Not "98 percent of the pressure," certainly, but some of it. And it's the sort of subtle pressure that journalists tend to overlook when they are digging for the causes of a tragedy like the Challenger explosion.

A survey of newspaper and television coverage of NASA in the weeks before the Challenger launch shows a series of increasingly critical stories focusing on NASA's delays. At that time, the "problem" at NASA that troubled the media wasn't that the space agency was too gung-ho and launch-happy (as some post-Challenger reporting has suggested) but that it kept postponing launches and wasn't meeting its schedule.

The previous shuttle flight, the Columbia, had been scrubbed seven times before it was finally launched Jan. 12, and the Challenger launch had been postponed three times. But instead of winning media praise for its prudent safety procedures, the space agency received a series of put-downs.

NASA's problems were mostly its own fault. The biggest pressure to launch Challenger was the space agency's own unrealistic schedule, which called for an 15 shuttle launches during 1986. In retrospect, it's clear that NASA was pushing too hard. But the news media, rather than urging caution, seemed during January 1986 to be egging NASA on. News reports repeatedly stressed the importance of meeting the schedule.

The media's tone became downright snide on Jan. 27, when the long-awaited launch of the "teacher in space" was aborted because of equipment problems and bad weather. The CBS story, cited above, set the tone by characterizing the scrubbed Challenger launch as a "comedy of errors." Other networks and newspapers adopted a similar tone.

The New York Times agreed that the scrubbed launch had been "a comedy of errors." The NBC Nightly News described the bolt problem as "an exasperating mishap" and "still another delay in efforts to put the first schoolteacher in space." On ABC's World News Tonight, John Quinones reported: "Once again a flawless liftoff proved to be too much of a challenge for the Challenger. This time the delay was blamed on bad weather and a stubborn door handle." (ABC, like CBS, used the word "blamed" to characterize NASA's explanation.)

The Washington Post led its story on the aborted Jan. 27 launch with a parody of an old proverb. The story began: "For lack of horsepower, the drill would not work; for want of a drill, the bolt was stuck; for want of the bolt, the hatch handle would not budge and, while technicians awaited another drill and tried a hacksaw, an Arctic cold front blew away the good weather."

The networks and newspapers all noted that the freezing weather expected on Jan. 28 might cause problems for the rescheduled launch. But both CBS and NBC pointed out that NASA's weather forecasts had been wrong in recent days and that these erroneous weather forecasts had led NASA managers to postpone launches unncessarily. CBS said of the overly-cautious forecasting: "NASA admitted they goofed."

The Jan. 27 stories capped more than a month of critical coverage of NASA delays and bumbling. For NASA, it was a month of rising frustration, as the shuttle Columbia went through seven scrubbed launches before it finally lifted off on Jan. 12. For the media, the Columbia launch became a kind of running soap opera.

Here's the way Dan Rather reported one aborted launch, on Jan. 10: "The star-crossed space shuttle Columbia stood ready for launch again today and once again the launch was scrubbed. Heavy rain was the cause this time. The launch has been postponed so often since its original date, December 18, that it's now known as mission impossible . . . ."

Tom Brokaw on NBC reported another of the Columbia postponements, on Jan. 7, this way: "At Cape Canaveral today, mission commander Robert Gibson said: 'We have a bad habit going here,' a habit of delays . . . . This time, the weather was bad at the Cape and two emergency landing sites. NASA decided the launch would be too risky. It's now aiming for Thursday of this week. These delays are becoming expensive as well. A NASA official said today that the agency loses as much as $300,000 every time there's a postponement. That's how much it cost to gear up again for the next time."

Brokaw reported the next day, on Jan. 8: "It's now 0-for-5 for the shuttle Columbia." And on Jan. 10: "By now the shuttle Columbia's crew members are experts at getting in and out of their spacecraft. They're 0-for-6."

Peter Jennings concluded on ABC after the Jan. 10 postponement: "The space agency hasn't had such problems since the days of the Mercury program . . . ."

Now imagine, for a moment, that you are a senior NASA official on the morning of Jan. 28. Because you are publicity conscious -- indeed, because you may well be a publicity hound -- you have been watching all three network newscasts for the past month and reading all the major newspapers.

What goes through your mind as you listen to arguments from meteorologists and technicians about cold weather and O-rings? Do you look for reasons to avoid more of the delays that have "rocked confidence" in NASA? Do you preview in your mind, if only for an instant, what Keystone Cops footage the networks will show tonight after another aborted launch? Do you worry about extending the "comedy of errors" by postponing the Challenger launch yet another day?

NASA officials, of course, should be immune from such petty anxieties and pressures. They should have the strength of character to ignore what the news media -- or anyone else -- have to say about launching a spacecraft. They should ignore public opinion. Above all, they should ignore what newspaper and television commentators have to say about scrubbed launches.

That raises a central problem about NASA: the possibility that it was too publicity conscious. If Richard Smith of the Kennedy Space Center is right in saying that the news media created "98 percent of the pressure" to launch Challenger, then that means NASA was taking news-media coverage too seriously. Officials were spending too much time watching television and reading newspaper clips.

NASA's over-attention to its media image has always been part of the hubris of the space agency. The early space launches, after all, seemed to run on two parts Life magazine, one part liquid fuel. Having benefited from favorable media coverage for so long, NASA officials undoubtedly were upset in January by stories that made them look like idiots.

The Challenger saga also illustrates a wider problem for the news business, one that surfaces in the coverage of other stories, from terrorist hijackings to political campaigns. The act of describing an event influences its outcome. Terrorists in Beirut stage gun battles for television cameramen; American politicians adjust their campaign schedules, and sometimes their political programs, to suit journalistic appetites; space-agency officials court favorable coverage.

In the news business, we like to think of our role as neutral, and to imagine that we do no more than hold up a mirror to the world. But it's more like a magnifying glass. Under the magnifying glass, small mistakes can seem enormous, simple human failings can seem monstrous, decisions that at the time looked sensible can appear grossly negligent. Indeed, media coverage can sometimes focus the light so sharply that it burns a hole right through the subject of the story.

It is the nature of the news business to analyse events with absolute certainty, and then to reverse itself and see things quite differently, again with absolute certainty. This process takes no more than an instant, no longer than the time it takes a rocket to explode.

Here's the way NBC's "Today" show on the morning of Jan. 28 reported the imminent launch of the Challenger on its 7:00 a.m. newscast:

Bob Jamieson, anchor: "At Cape Canaveral, NASA will try again this morning to launch the space shuttle Challenger. This will be the fourth attempt for this mission, which includes a trip into space for school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Monday's attempt was scrubbed by trouble with a door handle. Steve Delaney is at Cape Canaveral this morning. Good morning, Steve."

"Good morning, Bob. It is cold here; it is long-john weather at the Cape. NASA has had launches in subfreezing weather before, but never from the shuttle program, and there is some concern about the effect of these cold temperatures. Primarily, they're looking at a buildup of ice on the outside of the external fuel tank, which is loaded with hydrogen and oxygen at very low temperatures . . . .

"So, a lot of people around the country are going to be watching this one, if it gets off today, as they sincerely hope it does, because the longer they delay it the more they throw the whole schedule for the year off, and it's already a bit behind . . . ."

The Challenger disaster will torment NASA for years to come. It should also teach the news business an important lesson.

The lesson isn't that the news media should have been nicer to NASA, but that they should have been tougher. Reporters should have been asking hard questions about the shuttle program, its technical systems, its overly ambitious launch schedule and a NASA bureaucracy that among other things was overly concerned with its public image. Rather than hectoring NASA for missing its schedules, the media should have questioned whether the shuttle should have been launched at all on that sad January morning.

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Did the Media Goad NASA Into the Challenger Disaster?

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THE CBS EVENING NEWS might have opened this way on the night of Jan. 27: "Caution was the watchword at Cape Canaveral today, as take-no-risk NASA officials decided once again to postpone a launch rather than endanger the crew, which includes school teacher Christa McAuliffe.

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Christa McAuliffe (1948-1986), wearing a blue NASA jumpsuit, smiles in a studio portrait while holding a model of a space shuttle at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Sept. 26, 1985. She was the first private citizen to go into space on the shuttle. (Space Frontiers/Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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On this day in history, Jan. 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger - scheduled for a routine launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida - exploded after just 73 seconds in flight, killing all seven Americans on board.

The disaster shocked the nation - and led to an immediate pause in the space shuttle program.

The cause of the disaster was found to be the failure of the primary and secondary redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB).
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, JAN. 27, 1943, US EIGHTH AIR FORCE LAUNCHES BOMBING OFFENSIVE OVER NAZI GERMANY
While the mission on that fateful day in 1986 was supposed to be like any other routine mission, unusually cold temperatures caused the external tank to explode seconds into takeoff - causing the orbiter to disintegrate and the spacecraft to explode, according to NASA.

In addition to highly experienced astronauts, the Challenger carried a special passenger on board: teacher Christa McAuliffe.

She was a social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, chosen from among 10,000 others who applied to be the first private citizen in space, according to Britannica.
CHALLENGER CREW LIKELY SURVIVED EXPLOSION BEFORE TRAGIC PLUNGE TO EARTH, BOOK CLAIMS
In her application, McAuliffe said she would keep a journal about her experience - and would include sections about her training, the flight experience and her feelings about returning to Earth.

One of the reasons McAuliffe was chosen, apparently, was her teaching experience - and the way she would be able to connect with children across the country.

And that is why, on the day of the launch, scores of students in schools across the country watched as a teacher launched into space for the first time ever.
NASA SUCCESSFULLY TESTS NEW ENGINE FOR DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION
It was unfortunate timing for young children to watch this particular launch - something President Reagan was worried about when he was deciding how to address Americans later that evening.

Leading up to Challenger

Americans had been visiting space for decades before that - the first time in 1961, with U.S. Navy test pilot Alan Shepard.

Shepard was the second man in space following the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin just a mere weeks before.

By 1969, space travel had progressed to visiting the moon - something the U.S. successfully completed with Apollo 11 that year.
DOCUMENTARY FILM CREW LOOKING FOR WWII PLANE DISCOVERS PIECE OF SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER OFF FLORIDA COAST
However, with this success, Americans began to fear the government was spending too much on space, according to NASA.

A reusable manned spacecraft then became a focus by the Nixon administration, and the space shuttle program was born.

The Challenger's first mission was in April 1983 - and it quickly became one of the most popular spacecrafts to be used in the following three years, according to NASA.

The annual State of the Union address for early 1986 had been scheduled to take place on the evening of the Challenger's launch - but given the tragedy, President Reagan chose to delay the address by a week.

"The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave."

Instead, that night, Reagan did address the nation but from the familiar Oval Office instead.

Reagan began by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the State of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans."

He went on, "Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss."

In his speech, Reagan also expressed a willingness to remain steadfast in the pursuit of space flight - but also, he focused on the families of those who were aboard the Challenger and on the children who were watching the flight from their classrooms or homes.
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"I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen," Reagan told the country that night.

"The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave," Reagan also said.

"The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future - and we'll continue to follow them."

The next mission launch was over two-and-a half years later, in September 1988 - named the "Return to Flight" mission.

The mission lasted for four days and included 64 orbits around the planet.
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It ended with a successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California, according to NASA.

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On this day in history, Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger explodes, shocking the nation

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On this day in history, Jan. 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger - scheduled for a routine launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida - exploded after just 73 seconds in flight, killing all seven Americans on board. The disaster shocked the nation - and led to an immediate pause in the space shuttle program.

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The STS-51L mission clears the tower at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 28, 1986.

Credits: NASA

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NASA Views Images, Confirms Discovery of Shuttle Challenger Artifact

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NASA leaders recently viewed footage of an underwater dive off the East coast of Florida, and they confirm it depicts an artifact from the space shuttle Challenger.