Original subtitles

Narrator: Conceived half a century ago, the space shuttles are a giant leap in man's quest

To conquer space.

Wayne: It absolutely was revolutionary.

Joan: It looked like something out of star wars.

Narrator: The world's first reusable space craft, they ushr in a new era in space travel.

Bob: Going 17,500 miles an hour and there's not another ride like it.

Narrator: But pushing technoloy to the limit comes at a price.

Dick: And I looked over and saw the fire ball.

Narrator: Yet the shuttle program will continue and leave a lasting legacy.

Michael: We would never have the international space station without the space shuttle.

Narrator: But there is also a secret side to the shuttle program.

Jeff: We had quite a few military missions with the shuttle and I can't tell you

What we did with it.

Narrator: It will give the united states an edge over their soviet rivals.

Rowland: The shuttle threatened to dramatically change

The balance of power during the cold war.

Narrator: Almost four decades since they first took flight,

The shuttles remain the most iconic space ships ever built.

Milt: We can dip into space and come back and land like an aeroplane,

That's a heck of an accomplishment.

(music)

Narrator: Entering service in 1981, nasa's fleet of five space shuttles fly into orbit

And come back to earth again more than 130 times.

Wayne: It was uh, the first winged vehicle to fly back from space hypersonically.

It carried more people than any other space vehicle.

It was revolutionary in so many ways.

Narrator: Clocking over 537 million miles in space, for three decades the shuttles

Are the workhorses of the american space program.

Michael: The shuttle is so capable of what it's designed to do.

It really is, it's a fantastic achievement.

Narrator: The technology behind the shuttle's return trips to space is still one of man's

Greatest feats of engineering.

Male: T minus and one minute and counting.

Narrator: Bolted to a huge orange fuel tank and two of the largest solid rocket boosters

Ever built, the shuttle goes through its final checks before launch.

Male: Liquid hydrogen tank is at flight pressure.

Narrator: The only people within a three mile radius of the shuttle are the astronauts inside.

Jeff: There's a lot of things that can go wrong during a launch.

If sitting on top of a few million pounds of high explosives is gonna cause you

Emotional stress, you're in the wrong profession.

Narrator: 85 percent of the shuttle's 4.5 million pounds at takeoff, is fuel.

And it will use the explosive power of all of it to get into space.

Dick: Rocketry is controlled explosions in a hope

That it keeps you going in the right direction.

Male: T minus 20 seconds and counting.

Main engines prepare for ignition.

T minus 10, 9,

Michael: We don't hear a countdown like you public do, but we can see on our computer

Monitor, that little clock going tick, tick, tick.

Male: 8, 7,

Robert: 6.6 seconds before liftoff, we get ready to ignite the main engines.

Male: We've gone for main engines start.

Ken: Out the window you see this bright yellow glow.

Male: 3, 2, 1.

Ken: And you go "oh here we go."

Male: Lift off of america's space shuttle.

Michael: All that explosive power shoves us in the back and it's a very violent shove.

(music)

Joan: It feels like someone has kinda taken their foot and kicked you in the hind quarters.

Narrator: With all its engines blazing, the shuttle produces about 37 million horsepower!

Dick: It's a very visceral experience.

You know you are going somewhere very, very fast and you have very little control over it.

Narrator: Two minutes in, 28 miles high, the shuttle hits 3,000 miles per hour

And its reusable boosters are jettisoned.

Michael: At the moment we're going about mach 4, that's 4 times the speed of sound.

Rhea: And the, the sky goes from the clouds and blue sky to black sky.

(music)

Narrator: The shuttles main engines push it even faster

Through the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

Michael: We're gonna use up all the fuel to get up to mach 25, 25 times the speed of sound.

And that's the speed we need to keep going around the earth and never actually come back to it.

Narrator: Once the shuttle reaches 17,500 miles per hour,

Explosive bolts detonate and release the empty fuel tank.

Michael: Pf, that's it, we're weightless.

Rhea: Your pen floats, dust particles float, you're sort of looking around thinking,

Are we there yet? (laughs)

Narrator: It takes just 8 and a half minutes to get the shuttle into space.

Ken: There's usually a cheer from the crew about that point.

Because the, the most stressed part of the, the mission, the, the ascent, is over.

Narrator: In orbit, the versatility of the shuttle will allow it to do more

Than any other space ship before or since.

Robert: We could fit one and a half greyhound buses inside the cargo bay,

That's how big that vehicle is.

It was capable of carrying huge satellites up into orbit, constructing the international

Space station and that's what made it such a productive program.

Narrator: With room for eight astronauts, the shuttles can take more people into space

Than ever before.

Jeff: The shuttle has opened up space flight to a much wider variety of people, scientists,

Engineers, medical doctors.

We really learned a lot about uh, how to do science in space.

Narrator: But what makes the shuttles truly groundbreaking, is that they come back to eart.

Male: You are go for de-orbit burn.

Narrator: Travelling ten times faster than a bullet, the shuttle hits earth's atmospher.

Robert: We create a shock wave that has a temperature of 9,000 degrees and so it makes the air

Look like it's on fire.

You're flying into a blow torch.

Narrator: Friction from the air generates so much heat, the shuttle starts to glow.

Ken: You look outside and it's red, it just a, a terribly hot surface.

Narrator: The temperature of te shuttle's heat proof skin reaches 3000 degrees fahrenhei,

Almost four times the melting point of its metal air frame.

Ken: You see drips going along the, the, the windows and it looks like rain,

It looks like water, but it's something melting.

Narrator: Relying only on air friction to slow it down, it takes the shuttle 30 minutes

Flying time to reach its landing site.

Male: Columbia you're going subsonic now, looking good.

Narrator: Having used all its fuel in space, pilots depend on the shuttle's wings

To glide it home.

Robert: It was a great big 115 ton brick that doesn't have any engines.

And so, you get exactly one chance to land it.

Male: 5, 4,3,2,1, touchdown.

Narrator: Hitting the runway at 226 miles per hour, much faster than any plane,

The shuttle's parachutes are deployed to bring it to a halt.

Milt: I thought oh holy cow! We built this thing,

We find a way to get this into space and come back and land like

An aeroplane wheels on a runway, that's a heck of an accomplishment.

Narrator: But this accomplishment comes at a pric.

Over their three decades in service, the shuttles cost taxpayers $209 billion.

Yet when they are first proposd in the late 1960's, the space shuttles are meant to be

A cost effective successor to the most expensive space program in history.

Computers and rockets for an audacious mission.

President kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,

Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Narrator: With the cold war raging, president kennedy has another motive for sending men

To the moon.

Wayne: Kennedy was not particularly interested in space or going to the moon,

He was interested in beating the russians at something.

Milt: We pretty much had a blank cheque, you just said this is what I need to get this job done

And, and you got it.

Narrator: On the July 20th 1969, the us wins the race to the moon.

Neil armstrong: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Narrator: But getting men to the moon has a huge cost.

The final bill is more than $25 billion dollars.

Wayne: If you turn that into today's dollars, you're probably talking half a trillion.

That was an extremely expensive programme because we threw away the rocket every time we used it.

The only thing that you got back was this little capsule on the very top.

Even that was not reusable.

Narrator: Nasa is told it has to find a more cost effective way of getting into orbit.

They decide a revolutionary reusable space craft is the answer.

Tv announcer: Shuttle born pay load will be put in orbit

For a tenth of what it cost in the 60's.

Wayne: The space shuttle was conceived as a vehicle, like an airliner,

You would build it once, fly it many times, and therefore reduce the cost of getting into space.

Narrator: Nasa gets the go ahead, but there is a hidden dimension to the shuttles

Overall mission.

Jeff: We had quite a few military missions with the shuttle

And I can't tell you what we did with it.

Narrator: From the shuttle's inception,

The pentagon determines they'll be a cold war asset.

Jeff: The final size and shape of the shuttle was determined pretty much

By the military requirements.

Narrator: The shuttle's distinctive wide body is designed to deploy

The biggest military spy satellites.

Jeff: And they had satellites which were 60 feet long and so that,

That cargo bay had to be much bigger than nasa originally was planning.

(music)

Narrator: And they are given the wings of a jet fighter.

Jeff: Instead of having little stubby wings like nasa had originally planned,

That led to the big delta wings.

Narrator: But travelling 13 times faster than the concorde means the shuttle can't be flon

Like a normal airplane.

Jeff: You hit the atmosphere at, at 25 times the speed of sound,

There's no way that a human being can keep up.

Narrator: So to help pilots fly them, nasa invents a revolutionary new computer

System, surprisingly basic compared to today's standards.

Joan: The general purpose computers had 257 k memory.

Your phone has like a gazillion times more memory than the shuttle computer.

Narrator: Next, nasa needs to see if their new computers wor.

In 1976, a prototype shuttle is rolled out for testing and the american public gets to see

One of their new space craft for the first time.

Jeff: It grabbed the attention of the american public

And it didn't look like any other rocket.

It was the future.

Rowland: This is the world's first real space ship it was like um, star trek made real.

Narrator: Nasa even names it enterprise.

But this shuttle won't be boldly going into space.

To find out if their flight control computers are up to the job,

Nasa plans to launch enterprise from the back of a 747.

Milt: When I first heard about it, I said, "you got to be kidding me." (laughs)

No way! What a wonderful concept. Genius!

Male: Just by the touch in the physical area.

Narrator: Charles justiz is one of the nasa pilots who flew the specially adapted boeing 747.

Charles: As a, a research pilot that scared me to death.

It's like, somebody I hope did their math.

Narrator: Even with a 68 ton spaceship on top, the 747 can still take to the air.

Charles: It was a challenge.

When you're flying, the whole time, it's shaky.

Narrator: At 24,000 feet, the shuttle is released.

Male: Ok good job.

We're up and confirm computer light, it's number 2.

Narrator: Using the new computer system, the pilots are able to fly...

And land the shuttle.

Male: Ok the gear is coming down at 270.

185, roger that.

Ok that was too good a glider.

Charles: It was just amazing. The fact that it worked as well as it did,

To me is still one of the great successes of nasa.

Ngines

That can take the shuttle into orbit over and over.

Rowland: Nasa never had to reuse rocket engines before.

They'd always been thrown away.

It was like trying to build a formula one car that was gonna last as long as a ford cortina.

Narrator: The shuttles main engines need to produce the sae power as 200,000 family cars.

But making them reliable isn't easy.

Jeff: We saw some explosions on the test stands because you get so much power,

You're pushing these systems to the limit.

Narrator: It takes nasa nearly 10 years to perfect the shuttles engines.

But the biggest challenge by far is making sure the shuttles

Don't melt when they return to earth.

Tom: The friction is generated between that space craft and the earth's atmosphere

Creates a very high temperature, somewhere around 3,000 degrees.

Narrator: Previously, nasa protected it's astronauts by putting them inside

Small capsules with thick heat shields designed to burn away.

Jeff: It gradually melts and that carries away a lot of the heat.

Sort of like when you perspire and that works just fine.

But it's a one-shot deal.

Narrator: But the shuttle has totally different requirements.

Wayne: The shuttle needed something that was light and reusable

Which those previous heat shields weren't.

Narrator: So nasa decides to ue a revolutionary new material.

Tom: This is a silica tile and let me make it really simple.

Silica is nothing but pure sand. That's all it is.

It's mostly air.

Narrator: The tiles are extremely good at dissipating heat,

Even when baked at 1300 degree, they can be picked up with bare hands just seconds later.

But there's one problem with them, they are incredibly fragile.

Tom: And I could take my finger right now and poke a hole in it, that's how fragile it is.

Narrator: At first, nasa can't get the delicate tiles to stick to the shuttle's metal skin.

Wayne: We went through a process of nearly two years of trying to confirm that,

That we had properly bonded those tiles to the surface.

Narrator: In the end, they find the best way to glue the tiles is with bathroom sealant.

Tom: We went to the hardware store and we bought bath tub caulk.

So that's what we chose uh, and it worked.

(music)

Narrator: Countless tubes of bathroom caulk later, the first of the shuttle fleet is ready.

In early April 1981, shuttle columbia is rolled out to the launch pad to be prepped

For its maiden flight.

Commanding the mission is john young, he is one of nasa's most experienced astronauts

Who has walked on the moon. Accompanying him,

Is someone who has never even been into space, former navy test pilot, bob crippen.

Bob: I was 40 when uh, I was asked if I wanted to fly

And to finally know that I might have a chance to do it, was uh, uh,

Sort of the pinnacle of my life. It blew my mind.

I was ready to turn handsprings.

Narrator: The two astronauts have waited a long time for this moment.

Bob: We thought we'd be flying in about a year, but our main engines kept blowing up

On the test stand and um, the thermal protection system, uh, kept falling off.

Narrator: Now with the problems seemingly fixed, on April 12th 1981,

Shuttle columbia is ready for launch.

Thousands show up to watch the event.

But nasa is taking a big gambl.

No one has ever test flown a brand new space craft with astronauts on board before.

Rowland: It was the boldest test flight in history.

Everything was staked on the success of that mission.

If something went wrong, that was the end of the program.

Narrator: Tv cameras are broadcasting the event live to millions around the world.

Bob: There's always gonna be people taking your picture uh, it um,

It was a little bit surreal, but you don't really pay attention to all the cameras.

And my biggest thought was, don't screw up.

Narrator: In mission control, the tension is high.

Milt: Everybody was anxious, the flight control team were thinking we better be ready

Because we're gonna have some problems.

Narrator: Even though the shuttle was fitted with ejection seats,

If there is a serious problem, there is little chance of survival.

Bob: To me they were more of a placebo than anything else.

If you've ever seen that tail flame coming out of the solid rockets,

If you ejected out of that uh, you'd be very crispy when you hit the ground.

Male: T minus one minute.

10 seconds. And counting.

Bob: We got inside one minute and I turned to john and I said, "I think we might do it."

That's when my heart rate went up to about 130.

John's only was about 90, he says he was too old to go any faster but (laughs)

It was an exciting moment.

Male: 3, 2, 1 lift off of the first space shuttle.

Rhea: It was really awesome to see the shuttle rising above the trees.

The beauty of it as it climbed higher and higher.

(music)

Narrator: In mission control, more than 200 people are monitoring every aspect

Of the shuttles performance.

Male: Columbia, houston, you're go at throttle up.

Pilot: Roger, go at throttle up.

Milt: A lot can go wrong, early on.

Once the solid rocket boosters separate and the, in about four minutes and you're just

On the main engines, there's certain amount of relief there.

Male: Standing by for solid rocket booster sep.

Pilot: Roger on the sep.

Whoever said that space was black wasn't kidding.

Bob: It goes from being very loud and noisy to very quiet.

Pilot: Velocity now 16,400 feet per second.

Standing by now for main engine cut off.

Columbia now maneuvering to its orbit

Milt: It is a total uh, big sigh of relief once the main engines shut down and you're in orbit.

I don't know how else to say it, it's just a big sigh of relief.

Bob: 8 and a half minutes the vehicle was behaving beautifully.

We knew we were successful going at 17,500 miles an hour and there's not another ride like it.

The vice president calls in on live tv.

Pilot: Hello mr. Vice president.

Vice president: Hey who's that? John? John: Yes sir.

Vice president: How's it going up there? Everything rocking along alright?

Pilot: (inaudible) it's just on and beautiful.

Vice president: Listen I'm glad to talk to both of you.

And crip, how's he behaving?

Narrator: Everything is going according to plan, but when the cargo bay doors are opened,

The on-board cameras reveal an alarming sight.

Pilot: We do have an uh, a few tiles missing off of the starboard part.

Bob: It was very obvious to me that we were missing some of our uh, tiles,

Our thermal protection system on the rear end of the space craft.

If those are missing, maybe some were missing off the bottom and that would have been disastrous.

Narrator: The underside of the shuttle is subjected to the highest temperatures

During re-entry.

If a tile is missing, the shuttle will disintegrate befoe it even makes it back to earth.

Tom: The concern was we could lose the entire vehicle.

Male: Columbia, go for de-orbit burn.

Narrator: Hitting earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speed, the shuttle is immediately

Engulfed in a layer of super-heated plasma.

Mission control temporarily loses all communication with the crew.

Wayne: We had loss of signal for about 30 minutes until they were to appear uh,

Over the californian coast.

(music)

It was very tense and very quiet.

Narrator: There is no way for mission control to know if the heat shield is holding up.

Tom: That extremely anxious.

There wasn't anything that we could do.

Male: Columbia this is houston through yargitty, we're standing by.

Pilot: Hello houston, columbia is here.

Male: Hello columbia houston is here. How do you read?

Bob: And then we came in contact with the ground and told them we were coming in.

Pilot: Columbia and we're doing uh, mach 10.3 and 180 as.

Milt: To hear the voice of the crew was such a good feeling.

Narrator: Columbia's fragile heat shield works.

Tom: The real highlight was when I knew it and all those tiles did their job.

That was a bigger highlight in my career than apollo was, tell you the truth.

Narrator: The last job for the crew is to fly columbia

To its landing strip in the mohave desert.

Pilot: Gear down.

Bob: And there were thousands, thousands of people I think uh, half the population

Of los angeles had bailed out to come see us land. And um,

All I said to john was "look at all those people out there,

Hope they don't get on the runway." (laughs)

(music)

Narrator: After one million miles in space, columbia touches down.

Bob: I have never seen john that excited before.

And was still excited when he got outside the space craft.

I felt that way too.

The fact that it had worked as well as it did, was uh,

Something we were both extremely proud of.

(applause).

Narrator: With the inaugural mission a success, the shuttle program gets the green light

From the president.

President raegan: This versatility of the columbia and her sister ships will serve

The american people well, by establishing a more permanent presence in space.

Challenger you are free to take off now.

Narrator: The shuttle fleet goes to work promising to take everything and anything

The us wants into space, and at a much lower price.

Jeff: The promise of the shuttle in the early days was that the shuttle would be able to replace

All expendable launches at a fraction of the cost that people had been paying previously.

What a deal.

Wayne: It was supposed to replace all other american rockets and launch all american

Satellites into orbit for whatever reason.

Narrator: Nasa is determined te shuttles will grab the lion's share of the growing

Commercial satellite market to.

Rowland: But it was in satellite navigation and mobile phones uh,

And satellite television, the seeds of that were sewn by the constellation of satellites

That the shuttle helped put up.

(music)

Controller: (bleep) ok stand by. (bleep).

Narrator: Determined the shuttle program should reflect modern america,

Nasa opens its doors to more women.

Rhea seddon is one of the first to make the grade.

Rhea: I was the littlest astronaut that they had ever selected.

I think they just felt like, well all of the equipment will fit them.

Well it didn't.

Narrator: Nasa not only has to order smaller space suits,

They have to find a way to make them practical for women.

Rhea: How do you pee?

Uh, the men wore condoms that were attached to a bag that wasn't gonna work on women,

So they eventually designed some diapers for us.

Which worked just great.

Narrator: The sight of women in space, quickly captures the public's imagination.

Robert: It was just revolutionary.

The women astronauts were heroes.

They were much sought after by the press, much sought after for interviews.

Rhea: I think we felt very much in the spotlight and I was just completely taken aback but

We wanted to really, really do a good job.

The shuttle astronauts are leading double lives.

Secretly working for the us military.

Robert: The space shuttle had a huge capability to do classified missions that would let us

Eavesdrop on the russians.

And I was an active participant in all this.

Narrator: Then in 1983, president reagan announces his plans to use the shuttles

To do a lot more than just spy on the russians.

President raegan: The soviets have built up a massive arsenal

Of new strategic nuclear weapons.

Weapons that can strike directly at the united states.

I call upon the scientific community to give us the means

Of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Narrator: Immediately dubbed star wars by the press, reagans goal is to deploy nasa

To build a missile defense shield in space.

Tv announcer: Chemical lasers fire beams that burn through the shell of the onrushing missile.

Rowland: The star wars initiative threatened to dramatically change the balance

Of power during the cold war.

If america repel uh, a soviet nuclear attack, it can mean the cold war was over,

It meant america had won.

Narrator: But with so many military civilian and scientific missions,

The shuttle fleet is struggling to keep up with demand.

Robert: This thing is really complex.

The refurbishment between missions was far greater than what we had ever envisioned.

Narrator: After every flight, 740 critical components have to be replaced.

Jeff: It was reusable, but it was such a complex vehicle uh, that they needed thousands

Of people to turn it around.

Narrator: Costing up to $1.5 billion a launch, the shuttles are a lot more expensive

Than nasa anticipated.

To be cost effective, they need to fly a shuttle every two weeks,

But they are only launching 9 times a year.

Wayne: There were huge questions on nasa to deliver 24 flights a year and it wasn't just

The politicians, the media kept hammering on nasa to, to achieve this.

Narrator: Worse still for nasa, the public is getting bored with the shuttle program.

Robert: A lot of people had grown kind of uninterested in watching the space shuttle.

It had become kind ho hum.

Wayne: If you put against the lunar landings where you know, you're going to a new world

And planting the flag, what we're doing in orbit was not terribly exciting.

Narrator: Nasa knows they have to win back public support to keep the cash flowing

From congress.

So they come up with a bold plan, send a teacher into space to give a lesson

That will be beamed live into classrooms across america.

Rhea: Nasa wanted the other people of the world

To understand that space was for everyone.

Narrator: 11,000 teachers apply, 10 are short listed.

New hampshire teacher christa mcauliffe is the one picked to go into space.

Krista: When that shuttle goes, there might be one body mm.

But there's gonna be 10 souls that I'm taking with me.

Narrator: Runner up barbara morgan is her back up.

The american public instantly falls in love with down to earth mother of two, krista.

Barbara: Krista was really sweet, really kind, fun.

She was uh, the girl next door.

Narrator: Krista and barbara undergo four months of astronaut training.

Krista: It was wonderful, broke the sound barrier and he let me fly for a while.

It was great.

Barbara: Every minute was a learning experience for us.

It was just absolutely tremendous.

Narrator: One of the highlights is zero gravity training inside nasa's specially adapted

Airliner, dubbed, the vomit comet.

Barbara: Experiencing weightlessness is very surreal.

We had a lot of fun playing leap frog.

And the two of us, I don't think we stopped laughing the entire flight.

Narrator: But the real focus for krista is perfecting her lesson from space.

Barbara: Krista was so excited.

She was going to do a tour of the shuttle, do a tour of her crew mates.

Krista: This is christa mcauliffe, I'm gonna start out introducing you to

Two very important members of the crew.

Barbara: I'll always remember krista with her really cute little smile saying

"I have never prepared so well for one single lesson as I have here at nasa."

Krista: Woops! Oh.

Narrator: On January 28th 1986, krista is ready for her flight.

Krista: I am so excited and I just hope everybody tunes in to watch the teacher,

Teaching from space.

Narrator: The next morning, challenger will blast off.

Narrator: Overnight, the temperature drops to the low 20's.

Ice has formed on the launch tower.

Jeff: I took look a those icicles and thought to myself,

Well they're not launching today that's for sure.

Narrator: The big concern is the ice might damage the shuttle's fragile heat shield.

Chief engineer tom and his team are called in to assess the risk to the shuttle's

Thermal protection system.

Tom: We did a quick analysis and we determined that based on where the ice was,

We were safe to fly.

Narrator: But the shuttle's fragile heat shield isn't the only worry.

Robert: There were engineers for the booster rockets that were very concerned

With launching at those temperatures.

Narrator: The worry is that the cold could cause the shuttle's solid rocket boosters

To leak highly explosive fuel during take-off.

If that happens, the shuttle could blow up like a bomb.

Nasa makes the decision to launch.

Wayne: We never got together for a flight readiness review

Where people said well we don't have anything to talk about

Because everything worked perfectly, that never happened.

Narrator: 11.30 am, the world tunes in to watch christa mcauliffe

Become the first ordinary citizen to go into space.

Barbara: We were really, really excited about the launch, so excited I wanted to be

With the crew and I was really happy for them.

Narrator: Krista's family are n florida to see the big event.

And in her home town, her students are watching live.

Dick covey is the man charged with talking krista and the crew through launch.

Dick: I say if anybody sitting on a rocket and isn't a little bit concerned or frightened,

Then they don't understand what's going on.

Male: 10, 9,8,7,6, we have main engine start.

4,3,2,1 and lift off.

Lift off of the 25th space shuttle mission and it has cleared the tower.

Barbara: I had this huge smile on my face and I remember thinking that

I wanted to be there. (laughs)

Pilot: Houston challenger roll program.

Dick: I was sitting watching my data on my screen uh, because that was my job.

Male: Roger roll challenger.

Pilot: Good roll flight. Male: Rog, good roll.

Narrator: The shuttle positions itself to pick up speed.

Dick: Everything is looking like it should when we launch the space shuttle.

(music)

Narrator: 30 seconds in, challenger is 2 miles above florida.

Dick: The engines throttle back as they were supposed to as challenger is just going through

The uh, thickest part of the atmosphere.

Pilot: Engines throttling up, three engines now at 104 percent.

Narrator: The shuttle goes at maximum power to reach orbit.

Pilot: Three engines are running normally. Three good fuel cells.

Dick: The guys on the ground monitor the engines, look at them and say,

They're in good shape.

And I made a call.

Male: Challenger go with throttle up.

Pilot: Roger go throttle up.

(dramatic music)

Dick: There was some noise like static

And I looked over and saw the video of a fireball.

I had no idea what I was looking at.

It didn't make any sense to me at all.

Milt: What I saw were the solid rocket boosters still continuing to fly.

I mistakenly, I was hoping I was seeing the orbiter still flying.

Barbara: When things are flying everywhere, when you see the contrails it don't look

Like a normal, normal launch.

You, you know something, something is going on.

Male: Roger you getting any inputs?

Standby.

Narrator: The shuttles data disappears from everyone's screens.

Male: Flight fido.

Go ahead.

Rso reports vehicle exploded.

Dick: We quickly understood that we had had an explosion.

Challenger was not flying and it was then that we realized,

I think individually that we had lost the crew.

Narrator: The disaster unfolds in front of krista's parents...

And millions around the world watching on tv...

Including krista's students.

Male: We're now looking at the checking with the recovery forces to see uh,

What we can do at this point.

Jeff: I, I, think, I, I knew pretty much right away that, that this was a,

A major catastrophe.

Yeah these were my friends and, and they're dead.

Barbara: And we lost seven dear people.

That, that was horrible and, and it will always be horrible.

It's a terrible, terrible tragedy.

Milt: I hugged more than one person.

Uh, I, I wiped tears off more than one person.

Narrator: The challenger disaster shakes the entire nation.

All shuttle flights are groundd and a presidential inquiry is launched to figure out why

Six astronauts and a teacher lost their lives.

The results are damning.

Just as engineers had warned, the extreme cold caused the solid rocket boosters to fail

And nasa management at the marshall space flight center should have listened.

For the astronauts, grief quickly turned to anger.

Jeff: If it failed, in a way that people had been aware of and had anticipated,

And yet we went ahead, it was almost in a way like a betrayal.

Robert: It was a huge mistake, it was a huge error.

We paid very dearly for it.

Our seven crew members paid everything for it.

Dick: It's certainly disappointing that it occurred the way it did.

It, it's hard.

Narrator: The future of the shuttle program is in doubt.

Rhea: And we realized that it had become a national tragedy and um, we began to,

To wonder whether the shuttle would ever fly again.

Narrator: But the challenger disaster won't be the end for the shuttles.

Soon the us is shocked to discover that the russians have one of their own.

Tom: When I saw it I said, "they copied it."

Narrator: And nasa's shuttles will be needed to defeat them.

Robert: Hey, I'm the person who ended the cold war.

Narrator: But for all the triumphs

Mission control: There are smiles galore down here.

Narrator: Tragedy is never far away.

Milt: I said john "what's happened?"

And I'll never forget this, he said, "we lost them."

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