Fiona Pepper

So the tide sort of changed, I suppose.

There was a lot of anticipation about this 1986 launch.

January 28th, 1986 in Cape Canaveral is a cold day, unusually cold day.

So when all the NASA staff arrive at the Cape, the first thing they notice is ice.

There is a lot of ice.

The temperatures overnight had been below zero.

There's big icicles hanging off the launch pad structure.

And so for a lot of people,

You know, it wasn't unusual for launches to be scrubbed.

This particular mission was supposed to launch on January 23.

There were a number of dates that had been missed in that week.

So actually when staff arrived, they were like, nah, they're going to call this thing off.

NASA decided to go ahead.

There was a huge crowd at Cape Canaveral looking up.

It was a big, big deal.

Yeah.

Everything was looking pretty normal until 73 seconds into that launch.

Is that trouble or not?

When the space shuttle started to break apart and split into three sections.

Now, for people on the ground who, you know, this was the first shuttle they'd ever witnessed launching, there was a lot of confusion.