Thirty-five years ago today, January 28, 1986 at 11:39.13 a.m. ET, the world watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch in the deadliest NASA mission accident to date. Seven astronauts died.
As then-President Ronald Reagan said, “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”