Commenters should remember that these people in Mission Control were NOT the decision makers in the launch of STS-51-L. They did their job as they were tasked, notified that (all other range and equipment aspects they manage in compliance) that a launch was suitable. At least two men there, the flight director, Jay Greene, as well as the Mission Operations Director, Gene Kranz, were part of a team to save one mission 16 years earlier, on Apollo 13. I'm always in awe of these and all others here, who faced this defeat.

The last man to speak to Challenger, astronaut Dick Covey ("Challenger, go at throttle up") , was among the crew of the Shuttle's return-to-flight mission, STS-26. The size of an astronauts' heart, soul and balls is just astounding and awe-inspiring.

"...reports that the vehicle exploded." "...copy." True professionalism in the face of tragedy

Even given the very real risks, I think there is just something so special about being an astronaut that it is worth every bit of all of it. ❤

One of the darkest hours of the space flight history

God, no matter how many times I watch this, I pray that this is the one time I will see a different result.

To make it worse the whole world was watching. My entire grade school class was watching

No matter how much you watch it and from so many angles thanks to you LM5, but it still hits hard!

Just as shocking today as when it happened.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

This and 9/11 i would like to forget ... so sad. Thank you Simon 😪

My mother was working for the NYS tax department at the time, and someone ran in to the office and said "Did you hear about the Space shuttle?" They were like: Oh, Did they finally go up?" The person said: "No! It exploded! All of the astronauts were killed!" My mom said you could hear a feather drop from the silence in the room.

How is it that we are only now hearing the "extended" flight control loop? I've heard this many times over the years, and it always ends with the LSO conversation. I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in how the tapes were secured, FCOH implemented, etc. Thank you LM5 for making this version available, wherever it came from.

Commit (lift off) still makes me really uncomfortable. Those SRBs lighting up was the moment there was no changing the outcome.

3:27 when Greene turns to Kranz. No words exchanged. Haunting.

Had Challenger not blown up on STS-51L, she would have been modified to carry the Centaur-G upper stage in time for the "Death Star mission" (and no the astronauts were not joking) where Challenger and Atlantis were to launch the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft using the Centaur-G Prime upper stage within five days of each other. This presented a huge problem because you have a huge amount of high energy propellant (Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen) in the payload bay and in the event of an abort had to be dumped overboard. On top of that the SSME's would be pushed to 109% rated thrust and the crew size was reduced to four astronauts. In a way, the Challenger Accident prevented a even bigger accident with the shuttle and it Centaur-G upper stage. While all this was going on, the Air Force was prepping SLC-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base for the first Space Shuttle flights in order to carry spy satellites and other satellites that needed to be launched into polar orbit. NASA was developing the filament wound style SRB'S for the launches coming from Vandenberg Space Force Base. In the end, after the Challenger Accident, all Shuttle flights from Vandenberg were canceled and the Centaur-G was banned from the shuttle.

This morning is etched in my mind, as it is to anyone alive and old enough to remember it. I wasn't watching live coverage, I was walking to work, having reluctantly left coverage behind in order to get to work on time. It was a crisp, cool, sunny morning, and having enjoyed the walk of about a kilometer, I was feeling great! When I walked in the door at the job, I was immediately greeted with word from the office manager that the Shuttle had blown up and I rushed to get the details on the air (working at a radio station). It happened while I was walking. I was 325 miles (525 km) to the northwest. A horrible sequence of bad calls and outside pressure to get off the ground. But, spaceflight will remain hazardous. SpaceX worries me.

Terrible decision to launch in that cold environment, on that particular day!

You can see Jay Greene’s body language right after the mishap- heavy breathing. I’m sure he was haunted by that for the rest of his life.

What a day in history. A very memorable time. These men and women now in mission control are heroes. January 27 Apollo 1 fire, January 28 Challenger explosion. I was at the site of Apollo 1 when on January 28 2012, Betty Grissom had laid flowers. The tour guide pointed out that the remains of the challenger were sealed away in these large silos. Never understood why they did that.

The calm demeanor is admirable. Exactly what is needed to capture what got recorded for critical analysis. It is concerning that a definite process wasn’t already in play to copy/save/archive the data. It sounded very fragile in the moment where critical data could have been lost. Usually NASA contingency plans are pre-scripted so there is no assuming or guessing.

Good morning, across the Pond, LM5. What a pleasant surprise for a Saturday morning!

12:21 Do you know how many years I’ve been trying to find where they requested the RSO to call for military assistance for rescue? It was completely missed in any unit diaries or NASA release that I could ever find. A USAF Jolly Green crashed due to falling debris what I was told at the time but it could have been misheard and hearing that comment makes me think it didn’t happen. Thank you! That’s been like a 30+ year search for me.

RIP Jay Greene

I often wonder how history would have been different if there had been an RSLS abort on this flight (Main Engine Cutoff before liftoff) The mission probably gets delayed 3-6 months, and in the meantime SRB joint upgrades that were already in the pipeline possibly come online. They had already ordered new cases with the "double tang clevis" (also known as the "capture latch") because the joint flexing was become more of an issue as the current SRB cases aged (more use = more out of round) Aerojet had been working on the "filament wound Advanced Solid Rocket Motor" which had the capture latch. Aerojet knew of the issues that Morton Thiokol was having and knew that the filament wound cases could not tolerate flexing at all, hence the capture latch

Tight team . When 'Flight' calls your position he wants an *immediate* response - EECOM at 9:05 doesn't respond quickly enough and gets a 2nd call .

Do anyone know what role Gene Kranz had in the MCC that day? Notised he got up and ran somewhere shortly after it happened. Probably to coordinate something, but would be interesting to know what his title was that day?

Quite a tragic day

I wonder why someone on the loop would think that booster parachute was a paramedic. That soon after the mishap and the fact that paramedics don’t parachute in.

2:06 Mike Smith- "Uh, oh!"

20:01 I wonder if he was trying to prove or disprove Robert Ebeling's warnings.

What is that parachute that you see descending? I had never seen it before... Excellent work LM5!!

Merge this video with the cut from the start of T-9 minute hold. I have that if you need it!

The CYA begins.

9:56 "probably a paramedic" no one was ever sure about that lone shute. Some said it was the nose cone of a booster. I had to be, right?