UNSPECIFIED LOCATION - NOVEMBER 11: (FILE PHOTO) Space Shuttle Challenger crew members gather for an official portrait November 11, 1985 in an unspecified location. (Back, L-R) Mission Specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Teacher-in-Space participant Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis and mission specialist Judy Resnick. (Front, L-R) Pilot Mike Smith, commander Dick Scobee and mission specialist Ron McNair. The Challenger and its seven member crew were lost seventy three seconds after launch when a booster rocket failed. (Photo by NASA/Getty Images)

On this day in 1986, millions watched on live TV as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded moments after launch, Eliot Wilson remembers

On this day 40 years ago, NASA was preparing to launch the 25th mission of its Space Shuttle programme, STS-51-L, using the Space Shuttle Challenger on its 10th flight. During a six-day mission, Challenger would deploy a tracking and data relay satellite as part of America’s communications network, and carry out the first flight of Spartan 203, a small satellite which would observe Halley’s Comet as it passed that year.

The mission was the first to involve a crew member from NASA’s Teacher in Space Project. President Ronald Reagan had announced the initiative in August 1984 to inspire schoolchildren, encourage interest in science and mathematics and pay tribute to teachers. The selected teachers would go into space as payload specialists – civilians rather than members of the NASA Astronaut Corps – for a single mission then return to their profession and share their experience with pupils.

An initial 11,000 applications had been reduced to a shortlist of 10 teachers who underwent training in........

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