On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle "Challenger" exploded 73 seconds after liftoff.  Christa McAuliffe, the "first teacher in space," was aboard.  With primary sources (NASA-released pictures, drawings, videos and documents) linked in this story, http://www.awesomestories.com/disasters/challenger/challenger_explosion_ch1.htm  students can learn what went wrong - on the day of the launch (when the O-rings failed) and in the months leading up to the disaster (when people hotly debated whether the O-ring problem made the shuttle unsafe to fly).  After the explosion, a presidential commission examined NASA's photos.  Those pictures show smoke, coming from the failing rocket booster, less than a second after the shuttle's ignition.  Students can examine those photos, and many others, which investigators used to determine the disaster's cause and learn about the conference call, fifteen hours before launch, when concerned engineers argued against Challenger's flight.  Also linked are NASA's published transcript of the crew's last transmission (which ends with "Uhoh") and the official medical report (which indicates that at least some of the astronauts may have survived the initial explosion).    

The website is free to all educators, schools and libraries.  Simply request an academic membership at its main URL http://www.awesomestories.com/ which provides a link to the sign-up form.  http://www.awesomestories.com/group_signup.php 

Carole Bos
Grand Valley State University
Dean's Advisory Board