The January 28, 1986, launch of the space shuttle Challenger was expected to be a historic first - schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe was to be the first ordinary U.S. citizen flown into space. Instead, the Challenger flight marked one of the greatest tragedies in American space exploration when the shuttle exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members on board.
With the shuttle's explosion came serious questions. Could the tragedy have been averted? Why did NASA allow the Challenger to launch on that unseasonably cold morning? Did NASA knowingly put political, monetary or public relations considerations ahead of the astronauts' safety? On the eve of the disaster's twentieth anniversary, the National Geographic Channel (NGC) presents "Challenger: The Untold Story," which portrays the events and decisions leading up to the ill-fated launch with an immediacy that catapults viewers back to those tragic days.
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