Remembering Space Shuttle Challenger, 25 Years Later

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - Twenty-five years ago, as classrooms tuned in to watch the first teacher head into space, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after lift off.

The Jan. 28, 1986, tragedy was the first time NASA lost astronauts during a spaceflight and the second of NASA's three fatal accidents.

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Observances are being held this week in honor of the crew. The blog Scientific American said that NASA chief Charles Bolden and NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver laid a wreath Thursday morning at Arlingtion National Cemetery as part of NASA's annual Day of Remembrance.

Kennedy Space Center advertised the Astronauts Memorial Foundation will conduct a ceremony at 9 a.m. Friday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Scientific American said the first fatal NASA accident was Jan. 27, 1967, when a fire broke out on the Apollo 1 command module during a test on the launch pad. The third was on Feb. 1, 2003, when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas as it started to land, killing seven crewmembers on board.

The 1986 accident also killed all seven crewmembers, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. Other crew members included commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair and Ellison Onizuka and payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis.

“I was in school and I remember actually that we were watching it on television as a class and everybody was so excited,” Stephanie Nicholas told AOL News . “And so as a class we watched it blow. I think I was in sixth grade, and it was devastating.”

AOL News said a New York Times poll estimated nearly half of the 9- to 13-year-olds in America were watching the launch at school.

Despite being in an age before texting and social media, a 1989 study published in Journalism Quarterly and referred to by AOL News estimated that 85 percent of Americans knew about it within an hour.