Regina Barber

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

On January 28, 1986, the 25th Space Shuttle Mission Challenger left the launch pad in Cape Canaveral.

And then, 73 seconds into flight... The shuttle disintegrates.

That's Adam Higginbotham, a journalist who spent years reporting on the Challenger disaster.

And then, static.

In his book, Challenger, a true story of heroism and disaster on the edge of space, Adam pieces together stories from key officials, engineers, and the families of those killed in the explosion.

Today on the show, the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, lessons from the space shuttle program, and why space travel may never be routine.

I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

So Adam, some of our listeners may not have been alive during the explosion or have even witnessed it.

I was actually four, so I think I witnessed it, but I don't remember it.

Can you take us through the moments right before and after the launch on January 28th?

Really?

So one of the problems with the explosion, the Challenger explosion, involved rubber O-rings that sealed the joints between different segments of boosters.

And the engineers who built the rocket boosters at Morton Bicol in Utah were working on fixing those.

And based on previous launches, they thought those problems were related to cold weather.

And fast forward to the day of the Challenger launch and it's cold.

There's been this cold snap.

So do they reverse it?

The launch happens anyway.

Yeah.