Watch Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster A Documentary

A documentary film, Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, chronicles the events leading up to and following the tragic morning of January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members on board. The documentary begins by introducing the seven crew members, each of whom had unique backgrounds and interests. We meet Christa McAuliffe, the first private citizen selected to fly in space, who had planned to teach lessons from space to school children back on Earth. We also learn about mission commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ronald McNair and Ellison Onizuka, and payload specialists Gregory Jarvis and Judith Resnik.

We then get to see what happened on that fateful morning. The documentary provides footage of the excited crowds gathered to watch the launch, in addition to the tense moments inside the control room as NASA engineers noticed unusual levels of smoke emanating from the right booster rocket during lift off. Then, in a moment of incomprehensible horror, the shuttle explodes, casting debris over the Atlantic Ocean, and grounding NASA’s shuttle program for more than two years.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the film explores the immediate and long-lasting effects on both the families of the crew members and NASA as an institution. It examines the blame game that ensued, with different parties speculating on the cause of the explosion. The documentary goes into detail regarding the results of the Rogers Commission, created to investigate the catastrophe, and what the commission discovered caused the failure: the failure of a seal on one of the solid rocket boosters.

The documentary also details how the Challenger disaster would lead to important changes within NASA. It highlights how the catastrophe enhanced NASA’s corporate culture, created new rules of manufacture and repair, and changed the way they approached communication and management during critical periods. It includes interviews with current and retired NASA engineers and officials, who discuss the changes they made in the wake of this tragedy that made the space shuttle safer and outlined the institutional culture of NASA.

The documentary also brings in the points of view of family members of the seven crew members. They offer touching and personal insights to their loved ones, with interviews on the painful moments that followed the tragedy. Also, the bereaved family members talk about how their respective lives and careers have been affected by the legacy of the disaster.

Another important issue in the film is how the publicity around the event and its consequences affected the broader culture. In addition to the ongoing speculation and attempts to explain the disaster, the film emphasizes the way a national horror of the disaster became a talking point about U.S. technology, the end of the future, the fears of Reagan-era consumer culture and an icon of the cultural malaise of the 1980s. The documentary will appeal to all viewers interested in understanding how the Challenger disaster shaped national culture in the late 80s and subsequent years to follow.

The film’s postscript reaffirms the lessons NASA learned from that day and asserts that while the tragedy was an unspeakable loss, the hard-won lessons of the disaster paved the way for future triumphs, including the development of the International Space Station and a rebirth of human spaceflight.

In conclusion, the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster documentary is a sobering and comprehensive account of what went wrong during the Challenger disaster. It traces the shuttle program’s origins, and the crews’ lives and the events leading up to the disaster that eventually led to important institutional and cultural changes in NASA. Producers extensively research and thoroughly document every aspect of the Challenger disaster, making it both informative and educational. The documentary is an emotional and must-watch for anyone who is interested in history, NASA, space travel, or aviation.