Forty years after the Challenger disaster, NPR explores the engineers' last-minute efforts to stop the launch, their decades of guilt and the vital lessons that remain critical for NASA today.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Smoke billows in the sky above the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, ...

Seven astronauts were killed in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster. Because a teacher was aboard, millions of schoolchildren watched the event live in school. Forty years later, many of those ...

Forty years ago, a space shuttle exploded. A teacher and her crewmates lost their lives. A generation of schoolchildren watched it happen live. I was one of them. I was 10 when the Challenger ascended ...

Forty years ago, the world watched in horror as NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded mid-air, killing all seven crew members aboard. The disaster occurred at what was then the pinnacle of the U.S.

THE SETTLEMENT. EVERY YEAR, NASA PAUSES TO HONOR THE ASTRONAUTS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN PURSUIT OF SPACE EXPLORATION. TODAY MARKS NASA REMEMBRANCE DAY, AND NEXT WEEK WILL MARK 40 YEARS SINCE THE SPACE ...

Forty years ago today, Americans were stunned, shocked and saddened when the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on a cold, cloudless day in Florida. A booster leak ignited the ...