Original subtitles

MISSION CONTROL: Challenger, Houston.

Downloaded from YTS.MX

We have good TV.

Uh, go ahead with the lesson, Christa.

CHRISTA McAULIFFE: Okay.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

Good morning...

(clears throat) this is Christa McAuliffe

live from the Challenger.

And I'm gonna be taking you through a field trip.

I'm gonna start out introducing you

to two very important members of the crew.

The first one is Commander Scobee

who is sitting to my left.

And the second one is Michael Smith.

Now, Commander Scobee is going to tell you a little bit

about flying the orbiter and Commander Smith--

er, excuse me, Pilot Smith is going to be telling you

a little bit about the Spock, which is the computer

that is used onboard.

Okay, after they talk about that,

I'm going to be talking about the seats

and how people are seated during takeoff.

GLENN HOLLIS: Right now, going live to Cape Canaveral

in Florida.

Here's news director Jerry Little. Jerry, what's happening?

JERRY LITTLE: It was July 1985, Glenn,

when Christa McAuliffe beat out

better than 1,000 other teachers

to be chosen to be the first private citizen into space.

We're just minutes away from Christa's blast-off.

A very exciting time at Kennedy Space Center

on Cape Canaveral in Florida.

MARY ANNE LOUGHLIN: Patience has been a key element

around the NASA operation all this week.

We're going to join Tom Mintier now once again.

Just getting down to about three minutes, and they think they can do it.

TOM MINTIER: They are counting,

the ice is cleared away

and Challenger should be

going away very soon.

Let's go down to the Kennedy Space Center

and take a look at Challenger sitting on the pad.

HUGH HARRIS: The hydrogen burn igniters have been armed.

These igniters will be fired at T-minus ten seconds

to burn off any residual hydrogen gas.

LITTLE: You can feel the excitement here

at Kennedy Space Center right now

and in less than a minute, we'll be able to feel

the Challenger taking off.

HARRIS: T-minus 21 seconds,

and the solid rocket booster engine gimbal now underway.

T-minus 15 seconds.

LITTLE: This is it, Christa McAuliffe,

about to make history.

CROWD: Nine, eight, seven

six, five, four,

three, two, one...

HARRIS: Two, one. And liftoff,

liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission,

and it has cleared the tower.

LITTLE: Look at it go! Amazing!

Just a trail of flame.

MISSION CONTROL: Good roll program confirmed.

Challenger now heading down range.

LITTLE: I'm speechless, simply speechless.

No other way to explain it, simply awesome.

The feeling, the whole grandstand

three and a half miles away from here just shakes.

MISSION CONTROL: Three at 65.

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: 65, Fido?

MISSION CONTROL: T-del confirms throttles.

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Thank you.

Challenger, go with throttle up.

DICK SCOBEE: Roger, go with throttle up.

TED KOPPEL: After a weekend at Camp David,

President Reagan was back campaigning today.

The highlight of that trip, however, was an announcement

that the first citizen passenger

aboard the space shuttle will be a teacher.

RONALD REAGAN: It's long been a goal of our space shuttle,

the program, to someday carry

citizen passengers into space.

Today I'm directing NASA

to choose as the first citizen passenger

in the history of our space program,

one of America's finest...

a teacher.

(crowd applauds)

But when that shuttle lifts off

all of America will be reminded of the crucial role

that teachers and education play in the life of our nation.

REPORTER: Mike Dispecio is a science teacher

who believes in a practical approach to learning.

Now with NASA's invitation to apply for a ride

in the space shuttle,

an old ambition of Mike's has been rekindled.

MIKE DISPECIO: Fire!

Obviously, it's a dream.

Uh, and the competition is gonna be stiff.

But it'd be great to be that person selected.

REPORTER: These are some of the applications

from teachers hoping to be chosen for that flight.

The quality of the applicants,

says program manager Terry Rosenblatt,

is very high.

WOMAN 1: With the future development

of our space station,

then that opens up brand new opportunities for our young people.

And I think the message needs to be delivered

to our young people

so that they'll have job opportunities

and be receptive of these changes.

WOMAN 2: And I've always been dedicated

to finding new information for my children

and bringing new techniques and new technology,

such as computers or videography

to my classroom.

I'm really excited about this.

I really want to go.

INTERVIEWER: You will now have exactly 90 seconds

to answer the second question.

It is clear that this is a major time commitment.

If you are selected, what impact do you see

this having on your life beyond the classroom?

McAULIFFE: Well, certainly, it will change my life.

I have been a classroom teacher for these years.

But I've also been an adventurer,

and I've always wanted to try something new

and certainly, as a historian, to have the opportunity

to embark on such an adventure,

I certainly wouldn't be able to say no to.

GEORGE BUSH: So let me tell you now

who our teacher in space will be,

and let me say, I thought I was a world traveler,

uh, but this tops anything I've tried.

And first, the backup teacher

who will make the flight if the winner can't,

Barbara Morgan of the McCall Donnelly Elementary School

in McCall, Idaho.

Congratulations.

And we have a little, uh, little thing for you.

(crowd applauding)

And the winner, the teacher who will be going into space,

Christa McAuliffe.

Where is, is that you?

(applause)

Christa teaches in Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire.

She teaches high school social studies.

She's been teaching for 12 years.

She plans to keep a journal of her experiences in space.

Well, I'm personally looking forward

to, uh, reading that journal someday.

Good luck, Christa, and God bless all of you.

Thank you very much for coming.

And you too get one of these, uh...

so well done.

You want to say something or would you rather not?

Yeah.

McAULIFFE: It's not often that a teacher is

at a loss for words.

I know my students wouldn't think so.

I've made nine wonderful friends over the last two weeks.

And when that shuttle goes, there might be one body.

But there's gonna be 10 souls that I'm taking with me.

-Thank you. -BUSH: That's great.

REPORTER: I've gotta ask you, when did you find out?

Did you find out just before the announcement?

McAULIFFE: Yeah, we did.

We asked as a group, um, we requested that we find out

prior to going into the room.

It was a small room.

There were a lot of press there.

We've invested an awful lot of emotion

in these last two weeks, and we really felt that

we needed to find out

and compose ourselves before walking into the room.

So we did, we did know before we walked in.

REPORTER: Okay.

What were your feelings when you found out?

McAULIFFE: Well, it was rather funny.

When we were talking about, um,

what was happening at home,

and I was saying something to the effect that,

you know, well, when I'm not home,

and I said my husband really relies on cornflakes and milk

because that's kind of his staple.

And Ann Bradley turned around and kind of,

without missing a beat, she turned around and she said to me

while the whole group was together, she said, "I think you better buy

some more cornflakes and milk."

(both laugh)

STEVEN McAULIFFE: Everybody who knows her I think honestly thought that,

you know, there may have been candidates

who were certainly her equal but that there was nobody

that would be superior to her.

And we all felt that way, so we all felt

that she had a really, really good chance.

BRYANT GUMBEL: When you first applied for this,

did you think you had even a prayer?

McAULIFFE: I really didn't.

I was almost doing it kind of like

when you play the lottery.

If you don't play it, you don't win.

And when I filled out that application, that's really how I felt.

I figured there'd be at least 50,000 people across the country

who would be slipping that into the mailbox

around the same time I did.

GUMBEL: What about when you made it down to the last ten,

did you think then, maybe?

McAULIFFE: Well, then the possibility became very real

and I really started to think what the impact would be

on my teaching career and on my family.

But it was still really exciting.

GUMBEL: Has it all hit you yet?

McAULIFFE: No, no, I don't think so.

I still can't believe that I'm going to actually be going

into that shuttle.

It just, it just really doesn't seem possible.

GUMBEL: Maybe just a little bit of fright too?

McAULIFFE: Not yet.

Uh, maybe when I'm strapped in

and those rockets are going off underneath me

there will be, but space flight today

really seems safe.

(engine rumbling)

♪ ♪

MAN (off screen): We do a couple of things...

♪ ♪

Easy.

SCOBEE: It's a pleasure being here with y'all this morning.

This good-looking group off to my right,

I'd like to introduce them one at a time by specialty,

and then I would like each one of them to say

a little bit about what they're going to do on the flight.

So without further ado, Ellison Onizuka

is our expert on tracking data relay satellites,

the inertial upper stage, our largest payload onboard.

Ron McNair is our expert on the Spartan Halley,

the comet research satellite we're carrying onboard

that we're gonna put out over the side for a couple days and pick up.

Mike Smith, our pilot.

He'll also back me up on everything I do.

He's also an expert on rendezvous prox ops and systems.

Judy Resnik, who's our flight engineer.

Probably one of the most knowledgeable people

on the systems on the orbiter in the astronaut office,

so she's a real asset to the crew.

She's also our remote manipulator system operator,

so she's a crane operator on the side.

Greg Jarvis is one of our payload specialists.

Greg has a flight dynamics experiment onboard

he'll talk to you about.

It's fairly colorful, and it's a nice experiment

to be performed onboard the Orbiter during the whole mission.

And of course Christa McAuliffe, our teacher in space

who will be doing teacher activities the whole flight.

McAULIFFE: And as the first space participant,

I'd just like to say that I am very delighted

to be part of this crew.

Everybody's been wonderful in making me feel

a part of this mission.

I'll be teaching two lessons from the shuttle

and I was amazed to find out

how much crew participation I needed

for the two lessons.

Everybody's going to be involved in the field trip

through the shuttle.

The two lessons will be downlinked live,

and I think It's going to be very exciting for kids

to be able to turn on the TV

and see the teacher teaching from space.

MAN: Challenger, Houston. We have good video.

We're ready for your lesson. Go ahead, Christa.

McAULIFFE: Okay, we've come a long way from the Wright brothers' plane

to the shuttle.

All right now, when I've got the shuttle in my hand,

that's when I'll start talking about the payload bay

and talk about the satellites that are deployed

and then talk about what can be done onboard

inside the shuttle.

All right, so I'll be doing the liquid,

marshmallows,

otherwise known as cotton balls and beans.

And those things don't even have to be brought that close,

I think they'll be able to see that.

Okay?

When the 10 of us met as the 10 finalists

in Washington DC in August,

we realized that we wanted something very visual

that students could do in the classroom

and look and see how it happened that

a magnet, for example, was reacting

in a weightless environment and how it happened

that that magnet reacted in a gravity environment.

MAN (off screen): The string has got, okay...

(indistinct chatter)

McAULIFFE: It works. Okay, and then do the opposite, right?

MAN: And then opposites attract.

McAULIFFE: What I'll do is I'll just bring this up

and this will say, "end."

See right now it doesn't.

And I'll go like that,

and that should make it move away.

If you put it on here, we could try it Velcro.

And then I could try a free float...

For the, uh, for the electromagnet.

There's going to be one on magnetism,

and we've got a wonderful three-dimensional magnet

that we took up in the KC-135,

and it just worked beautifully.

So we're very excited about that.

(indistinct chatter)

McAULIFFE: Oh, that's great! I love it. Oh!

Oh, I think it'll do it.

Ah!

Oh, it's easy to do it this way.

(laughter)

All right, first leap frog in zero, lunar gravity.

One leap frog, two leap frogs.

Three leap frogs!

REPORTER: So far, what's been

the most rigorous part of your training?

McAULIFFE: A lot of the training is not,

it's not physically rigorous.

Uh, mentally it is because you're trying

to learn all of this information

to get yourself ready to go onboard the shuttle.

MAN: See the little green orbiter bug on flight--

on orbit number 61?

♪ ♪

McAULIFFE: T-minus-- Oh, okay, so it does, yeah.

It does come out before.

Oh, my God.

This doesn't seem possible!

(both laughing)

Oh!

BARBARA MORGAN: Can you get the scarf?

McAULIFFE: Oh!

Oh! Oh!

(inaudible chatter)

(screaming, laughing)

(crowd applauding)

McAULIFFE: Oh, it's beautiful!

(inaudible)

McAULIFFE: Probably one of the hardest things

that has happened to me this year

in trying to just get adjusted is that

I'm no longer in school.

I'm a student again, full time.

That is a big change from the last few years

because I've been teaching,

but also being so far away from my family

and this is a year commitment,

and that's been probably one of the hardest adjustments

I've had to make.

You like this?

And these containers, Scott, have experiments in them

on the real flight

so that they'll be exposed to space,

and then they take them back when the shuttle comes back,

and they see what happens to them.

(laughing)

STEVEN McAULIFFE: Okay, Grace. Go ahead.

McAULIFFE: Big dish?

MAN: Yeah, that's what you'll be talking with.

REPORTER: When she left her husband

and two children in New Hampshire,

her six-year-old daughter Caroline

wasn't very happy about it.

Why wasn't she?

CAROLINE McAULIFFE: Because I don't want her to go in space

because I just want her to stay around my house.

BILL BOYNTON: You're listening to public radio for New Hampshire.

WEVO-FM 89 in Concord.

Good morning, I'm Bill Boynton reporting state news.

And it is space news as well as the space shuttle Challenger

is still sitting on its Cape Canaveral launch pad

after a one-day delay that was forced

by a forecast of rain and thunderstorms.

DOUG LEVY: We're supposed to be live today

with the blast-off of the space shuttle Challenger.

JIM VAN DONGEN: It was a very simple matter

that derailed the whole operation this morning.

They were literally having to send back to the ground

for a charged battery-powered drill.

Then the technicians were able to free the problem with the hatch.

They had to physically drill a screw out of there.

LEVY: Once again, the launch of Christa McAuliffe

and the space shuttle Challenger

has been postponed again, possibly until tomorrow,

possibly until later in the week.

ANDREA SHEA KING: This is shuttle launch control

at T-minus three hours and holding.

We're about four hours and ten minutes away

from the opening of today's launch window

for mission 51-L

with America's first private citizen to fly aboard

the shuttle in NASA's space flight participation program.

This will be the tenth flight for the orbiter Challenger

and the 25th launch for the space transportation system.

The weather at this time looks good

and the temperature at the launch pad right now

is 24 degrees.

This is shuttle launch control at T-minus two hours

28 minutes and counting.

Here comes the 51-L flight crew, boarding the elevator,

uh, for the second time in two days, ready to depart the O and C building

-for the launchpad. -WOMAN: Yeah!

SHEA KING: Commander Dick Scobee

followed by mission specialist Judy Resnik,

Ron McNair, pilot Mike Smith

followed by Christa McAuliffe, teacher in space.

Big smiles today.

Confidently getting into the van.

HARRIS: The Astrovan carrying the crew

of the 51-L mission,

headed by Commander Dick Scobee,

has just reached the pad surface.

The crew is going to find somewhat of a chilly welcome

when they arrive in the cabin.

There is no real heaters in there overnight,

and the temperature here at the Kennedy Space Center

dropped down into the 20s.

The first crew member, Commander Dick Scobee now

in the white room, taking off his jacket

along with Mike Smith who is the pilot.

As they prepare to board, each of them will put on

an integrated egress harness and a special helmet.

Primarily it's part of an emergency egress system

or exit system

that helps the crew climb out of the vehicle

in the event of a crash.

The teacher/observer Christa McAuliffe

has been handed an apple by the closeout crew.

All seven members of the 51-L flight crew

are now in the shuttle.

DAN FINN: Right now, we're going live

to Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Here's news director Jerry Little.

Jerry, what's happening?

LITTLE: The shuttle is about three and a half miles away from us.

It is a huge rocket that it's on.

It doesn't look that small from here.

You wouldn't guess it was three and a half miles.

HARRIS: T-minus seven minutes, 30 seconds.

And the ground launch sequencer

has started retracting the orbiter crew access arm.

LITTLE: Christa is scheduled to perform, uh,

lots of lessons from space, two of them actually,

on her fourth day of the mission.

That's gonna be Friday

if Challenger gets off the ground today

and it's looking good.

HARRIS: T-minus two minutes, 44 seconds

and counting.

Retraction has started of the gaseous oxygen vent hood.

LITTLE: Less than a minute and a half.

Concord's Christa McAuliffe is heading for the stars.

You can feel the excitement here at Kennedy Space Center right now

and in less than a minute, we'll be able to feel

the Challenger taking off.

(applause and cheering)

DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI: Christa's parents standing in the bleachers,

arms around each other.

Twenty-seven seconds.

HARRIS: The SRB hydraulic power units have started.

T-minus 15 seconds.

LITTLE: This is it, Christa McAuliffe about to make history.

HARRIS: T-minus ten, nine, eight,

seven, six...

We have main engine start.

...four, three, two, one. And liftoff.

Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission,

and it has cleared the tower.

(cheering)

MAN (on radio): Liftoff confirmed.

Liftoff.

MIKE SMITH: Houston, Challenger. Roll program.

MAN: Roger roll, Challenger.

LITTLE: I'm speechless, simply speechless.

No other way to explain it, simply awesome.

LITTLE: The feeling, the whole grandstand

three and a half miles away from here just shakes

and, and it almost knocks you out of your seat.

It leaves a trail of clouds, folks, that's--

It must be miles apart and miles and miles wide,

and I don't know how else you'd explain it.

I was afraid this was gonna happen.

That this thing would be so awe-inspiring

that I wouldn't know what to say.

And that's occurred.

(cheering and applause)

(indistinct chatter and cheering)

MISSION CONTROL: Good roll, flight.

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Rog, good roll.

MISSION CONTROL: Three at 65.

Sixty-five, Fido?

MISSION CONTROL: Engines at 65 percent,

three engines running normally...

LITTLE: She's up, Christa McAuliffe,

heading to outer space.

The first teacher in space,

the first private citizen in space.

♪ ♪

It looks to be a perfect liftoff.

T-del confirms throttles.

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Thank you.

MAN: Challenger, go at throttle up.

SCOBEE: Roger. Go at throttle up.

(explosion)

(screaming)

MISSION CONTROL: Velocity, 2900 feet per second. Altitude...

BOB MOON: Something went wrong here.

We've got a problem with, uh,

what looks like a second plume of, uh...

of smoke.

DICK ULIANO: We do have a problem, Bob.

It looks, it looks as if one of the solid--

It may have lost a solid rocket booster,

it's hard to tell.

MOON: There are two separate plumes of smoke.

and the shuttle--

We can't tell which one the shuttle is now.

They've separated.

(radio static)

MAN: Fido, trajectory.

Go ahead.

MISSION CONTROL: Flight, JSC, we've had negative contact.

Loss of downlink.

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Okay, all operators, watch your data carefully.

(indistinct chatter)

MISSION CONTROL: Flight controllers here are looking

very carefully at the situation.

Obviously a major malfunction.

TEACHER: Hold on, there was a major malfunction!

Would you like to hear about it?

Quiet down!

MISSION CONTROL: We have a report from the flight dynamics officer

that the vehicle has exploded.

Flight director confirms that.

We are looking at checking with the recovery forces

to see what can be done at this point.

(indistinct chatter)

MAN (whispering): Would you get that thing out of here, please.

MISSION CONTROL: We'll report more as we have further information available.

Again, to repeat, we have a report

relayed through the flight dynamics officer

that the vehicle has exploded.

We are now looking at all the contingency operations

and awaiting word from any recovery forces

in the down range field.

MISSION CONTROL: Negative contact. Loss of downlink.

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Okay, are there any forces headed out that way?

MISSION CONTROL: Yes, sir. DOD also reports that

all SAR forces have been scrambled

and they are on their way.

-MISSION CONTROL: Flight, Fido. -FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Go ahead.

MISSION CONTROL: RSO reports vehicle exploded.

MAN: Copy.

Fido, can we get any reports from recovery forces.

MISSION CONTROL: Flight controllers here looking

very carefully at the situation.

TIRRELL-WYSOCKI: A hush has fallen over the bleacher.

MISSION CONTROL: Obviously a major malfunction.

TIRRELL-WYSOCKI: They're saying there's been a major malfunction.

The crowd is quiet.

You can hear a pin drop here as they wait to hear

from mission control on what the malfunction was.

MISSION CONTROL: We have a report from the flight dynamics officer

that the vehicle has exploded.

Flight director confirms that.

We are looking at checking with recovery forces

to see what can be done at this point.

(indistinct chatter)

LITTLE: Oh, my God.

The vehicle exploded. It was up beyond the roof here

at the grandstand. I couldn't see it.

It left the TV screen.

With me here now is Jim Banke.

He's an editor of Avion magazine.

Jim, can you give us an idea of what's happened here?

JIM BANKE: Jerry, I was closer down to the ground there.

I could see it overhead, and it appeared to, uh,

just a shower of smoke,

the solid rocket booster produces a very thick smoke,

and we just saw trails all over the place.

MISSION CONTROL: Flight, GC. Negative downlink.

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Copy.

MISSION CONTROL: Checking with recovery forces

to see what can be done at this point.

And we will keep you advised

as further information becomes available.

This is mission control.

TIRRELL-WYSOCKI: Everyone in the stands

holding their faces and crying.

Some of the parents are hugging their kids,

just staring up at the sky,

at the smoke that was left as it took off.

Christa McAuliffe's parents standing in the bleachers,

just staring up at the smoke.

The third graders from Kimball School in Concord

crying, waiting to hear what happened.

BANKE: We saw NASA spokesman Jim Izell

running towards the press site dome,

saying an RTLS abort which is a "Return To Launch Site" abort

where they would expect Challenger

to land at the runway here.

Now Houston is beginning to intimate

that perhaps the orbiter has exploded.

They are not receiving any telemetry from the orbiter

and at this time, they are waiting for landing recovery

emergency forces out near the ocean

and back here at the Cape to get some kind of word.

(indistinct announcement)

LITTLE: That last message was no additional word.

There are no signals coming from the space shuttle Challenger.

This is, this is too much to comprehend.

MISSION CONTROL: We are waiting for verification

as to the location of the recovery forces in the field

to see what may be possible at this point.

LITTLE: There is absolutely no sign

of the Challenger.

Oh, my God.

MISSION CONTROL: And we will keep you advised

as further information becomes available.

LITTLE: Glenn, ladies and gentlemen at home,

I don't know what to say.

It's...

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Do the RSOs have an impact point?

MISSION CONTROL: Stand by.

♪ ♪

FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Okay, everybody, stay off the telephones.

Make sure you maintain all your data.

Start pulling it together.

(indistinct announcement on PA system)

LITTLE: The scene is hectic around here.

People are running in every direction.

NASA technicians and officials

headed inside as soon as the explosion occurred.

Reporters and photographers ran for their phones

and their cameras.

Spectators... in horror

also left the field in front of us.

I saw Barbara Morgan being literally carried back inside.

NASA has not given us any more information

in the last five minutes.

This of course would be the worst disaster

in aerospace history.

MINTIER: Let's go now to live picture.

We see a parachute.

LOUGHLIN: What kind of parachutes, uh,

do they have, Tom?

How many do they have? How much can they hold?

Do you have any information?

FINN: Jerry, we're looking at some TV pictures

that apparently show something of that explosion

did indeed parachute out of it.

LITTLE: It appears to be a parachute

with something on it.

FINN: Well, we're watching a parachute floating down, uh,

and we don't know what that is.

(indistinct newsroom chatter)

MAN 1: Can you get to the airport in time

to just meet that plane and just get back

on the plane with tickets.

MAN 2: Graphics, I need pictures of the crew, please!

LOUGHLIN: We are still not clear as yet, Tom,

exactly what was parachuting down here.

MINTIER: We're not clear, but we know that a C-130 was in the area

and that medical personnel were dispatched by parachute

down into the water to search for survivors.

LOUGHLIN: So this is possibly a rescue effort.

MINTIER: That's right.

This came about 12 or 12 and a half minutes

after the explosion.

MAN: Those parachutes are believed to be paramedics

going into that area.

FINN: If you're just joining us on Joy FM,

what you're hearing is the voice of mission control.

The space shuttle went up at about 11:38

and a minute into the flight, it exploded,

and they're awaiting word now on what the status of the craft is.

MAN: Flight controllers reviewing their data here

in mission control.

LITTLE: Okay, as you've heard, that parachute that we saw

heading down into the landing area

or the area where

the craft appears to have impacted

are, again, emergency medical technicians.

It is not part of the Challenger.

They're trying to find what is left of the craft

and hopefully survivors.

Helicopters are now passing overhead

on their way out there,

as are rescue ships.

JOHN ZARRELLA: It just seemed that it happened so suddenly.

Who knows whether or not they had time

to rehearse any kind of an emergency procedure at this point.

If it was just, you know, an instantaneous explosion

that no one was expecting.

GLENN HOLLIS: At this point, we have no more specific information,

but we will go back to Jerry Little in Florida.

Jerry, is there any more word at this point

from mission control?

LITTLE: There's nothing I can say.

I, I'm, I'm grieved.

I-- there was so much anticipation,

so much, so much excitement around this.

The craft had gone up,

out of my view, and I was watching it on the screen

as, as most of you at home were and, uh...

I'm sorry, I've gotta go.

I need some time.

LOUGHLIN: You are looking at the seven crew members

of the space shuttle Challenger's mission.

We have no official word as of yet on their fate,

but the explosion, as you saw,

was a tremendous and disastrous one.

John, we have some information from NASA right now

as to exactly where parts of the spacecraft fell.

They were reporting it fell at 28.64 north latitude

and 80.28 degrees west longitude,

just a few miles off Cape Canaveral.

MINTIER: This is a live picture off the Florida coast

at the Kennedy Space Center from one of NASA's helicopters.

FINN: The ships and helicopters are racing to the area now

where the space shuttle Challenger went down.

The control center says that paramedics have entered the water.

There's no indication of how much of the shuttle is intact.

At this point, we are going to try to reestablish contact

with Joy FM's Jerry Little,

who was live at the crash site.

Jerry, are you with us?

LITTLE: It's a, a strange scene, Dan.

A lot of these reporters are hard at work,

um, filing their stories on the tragedy.

and I'm just too stunned by the whole thing right now.

I guess I have to apologize for the lack of my effectiveness

but us from Concord and New Hampshire

are thinking of Christa and her family right now.

But there were seven people on that craft.

FINN: Jerry, we're going to interrupt you for a moment

and go to the White House for spokesman Larry Speakes.

LARRY SPEAKES: Uh, we do not have any more information

than is being provided to the public at this time.

Uh, the way the president found out about it was he was

in the Oval Office with a group of senior staff

preparing for the State of the Union.

The vice president and the foreign policy advisor

John Poindexter came in with others

and informed the president that the news had just broken.

We immediately adjourned our Oval Office meeting

and went into an adjoining room,

the president's study, where there's a television,

and the president then began to review

television reports.

REPORTER: Larry, can you tell us anything specifically

that the president said,

any quotations?

And did he make any mention of the fact

that the teacher that he suggested,

that the program of the teacher in space,

that that teacher was onboard this flight?

SPEAKES: Well, I know that was on his mind.

Quite frankly, the president stood there

in almost stunned silence as he watched the television.

You could certainly read the concern,

the sorrow, the anxiety on his face

as he watched and the group watched around him.

As I say, he was--

he was, virtually watched in silence.

REPORTER: What is the best information as to the condition

of the crew, Larry, at this point?

SPEAKES: We don't have any more information

than what is being provided to the public on television.

MAN: The NASA news conference at 3:30 live.

Then get me into, there's been a reaction

from across the country.

Briefly, some thoughts from people in New York.

WOMAN: The only thing I could think about

were those kids in that auditorium

and the trauma they must be going

and what a shock it must be for them

to watch something like that happen to their teacher.

That's what I was thinking of.

MAN 1: People risked their life for the future

of the United States.

Made me feel terrible.

MAN 2: It's like when Kennedy died

and Martin Luther King died.

You always feel inside that,

like, part of you is gone too.

MAN 3: Hey, listen, I got a major problem.

Whoever cut that tape of the reaction

took all the guts out of it.

There may be no State of the Union tonight.

They gotta start planning a shuttle show for 9 o'clock.

REPORTER: Will this affect in any way the plans

for the State of the Union tonight.

SPEAKES: I don't believe so.

I'm certain that the president, uh,

will, uh, will feel compelled to mention this

depending on the outcome of what we learn here

in a few minutes.

MAN: Let me introduce the vice president

of the United States, George Bush.

-Mr. Bush. -(applause)

BUSH: Thank you, all.

Well, first my respects and gratitude to this team,

everybody here, on what's got to be

one of the toughest,

if not the toughest day in the history

of this marvelous program that NASA has overseen

over the years.

The president asked me to come down

to pay my respects to the families

on behalf of the country

and also to all of you that work at NASA.

And we went over and saw some of the family members.

And we also heard a marvelous message

that all of them seemed to share in.

And that is their plea, the family members' plea,

that the program lose no zip,

that it go forward, uh, full speed.

JOHN GLENN: Most of you have been tied up here today.

You've been on the boards here

and at your positions here

and you haven't seen probably much of what's been going on

on TV across the country today.

But it's been a national day of tragedy,

I can guarantee you that.

And you'll see that when you finally get out of here this evening.

All of America is sharing in the tragedy

that you have lived through here today.

We've had tremendous triumphs.

We've had triumph after triumph after triumph,

and that's how mankind goes ahead,

to be a little philosophical for just a moment.

We try, we try, we try.

And in this program we've succeeded.

Really if we're honest about it and honest with ourselves,

beyond our wildest dreams

because I would never have thought

we would ever go this far

without losing some people in something where you're up there

traveling around at five miles a second.

The heat of re-entry and all the complexities

and the things that have to work right.

Then we come to a time when something happens,

and we have a tragedy that goes along with our triumphs.

And I guess that's the story of all mankind.

REAGAN: Ladies and gentlemen,

I'd planned to speak to you tonight

to report on the State of the Union.

But the events of earlier today

have led me to change those plans.

Today is a day for mourning and remembering.

RUSTY SPALDING: I felt as if my whole body blew up inside

when I saw that,

and I can just never be

as shocked as I am now.

REAGAN: We mourn seven heroes.

Michael Smith, Dick Scobee,

Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair,

Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis,

and Christa McAuliffe.

GIRL: She was just a real caring, kind person.

She's kind of like a big sister to me kind of.

I just...

She's just really special.

REAGAN: We mourn their loss as a nation, together.

JIM SLADE: The boat is towing a fairly sizable piece of debris.

Challenger will come home

in as many pieces as they can find.

REAGAN: The families of the seven,

we cannot bear as you do the full impact of this tragedy,

but we feel the loss,

and we're thinking about you so very much.

Your loved ones were daring and brave,

and they had that special grace,

that special spirit that says,

"Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy."

They had a hunger to explore the universe

and discover its truths.

They wished to serve and they did.

They served all of us.

We've grown used to wonders in this century.

It's hard to dazzle us.

But for 25 years, the United States Space Program

has been doing just that.

We've grown used to the idea of space

and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun.

We're still pioneers.

They, the members of the Challenger crew,

were pioneers.

And I want to say something to the school children

of America who were watching the live coverage

of the shuttle's takeoff.

I know it's hard to understand,

but sometimes painful things like this happen.

It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery.

McAULIFFE: All right, all right.

REAGAN: It's all part of taking a chance

and expanding man's horizons.

The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted.

It belongs to the brave.

INTERVIEWER: You will now have exactly 90 seconds

to answer the final question.

Describe your philosophy of living.

McAULIFFE: My philosophy of living.

Well, I think my philosophy of living is to get

as much out of life as possible.

REAGAN: The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future,

and we'll continue to follow them.

REVEREND V. BENFORD FRIAR II: Life is but a vapor.

We see it for a moment...

and then it's gone.

But while we have life,

let us contribute to humanity.

These seven contributed their lives for a great cause.

And I thank God today I had the opportunity

to meet them by media.

And they have inspired my mind and my heart.

REAGAN: There's a coincidence today.

On this day 390 years ago,

the great explorer Sir Francis Drake

died aboard ship off the coast of Panama.

In his lifetime, the great frontiers were the oceans.

Historian later said, he lived by the sea,

died on it, and was buried in it.

Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew,

their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger

honored us with the manner in which they lived their lives.

We will never forget them,

nor the last time we saw them,

this morning as they prepared for their journey

and waved goodbye...

HARRIS: Three, two, one and liftoff.

...and slipped the surly bonds of Earth...

HARRIS: Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission,

and it has cleared the tower.

REAGAN: ...to touch the face of God.

MISSION CONTROL: Challenger now heading down range...

REPORTER: Americans everywhere watched.

At an exercise club in California's San Fernando valley,

in a recreation room of an American MP barracks

in West Germany,

at Port Saint John, Florida,

where students at Challenger Elementary School,

named in memory of the last shuttle,

would be able to see the launch on the horizon

from their playground,

and in Huntsville, Alabama,

they watched too, at the National Space Academy

for high school students.

STUDENTS: Nine, eight, seven, six...

Three, two, one!

Liftoff!

(shouting and cheering)

HARRIS: Americans return to space

as Discovery clears the tower.

REPORTER: Cheers everywhere.

STUDENTS: Go, go, go, go, go, go!

REAGAN: The space shuttle Discovery

is now headed into orbit

and America is back in space.

Captioned by Point.360