Challenger

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.

It has been 30 years since the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded off the coast of Cape Canaveral. All seven crew members, including teacher Christa…

It has been 30 years since the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded off the coast of Cape Canaveral. All seven crew members, including teacher Christa…

The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 "was a trauma to the nation's psyche," says Sen. Bill Nelson, a former astronaut. But NASA and the American public have learned a few things about space science since then.