In 1986, the world watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger exploded, and John Denver's personal connection to NASA inspired a heartfelt song.

The two solid rocket boosters flew in different directions as the external fuel tank became a fireball.(AP: Bruce Weaver / File) Forty years ago, the Challenger space shuttle disintegrated just after ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Wednesday marks 40 years since the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. On Jan. 28, 1986, the Challenger took off from the Kennedy ...

For millions of Americans, it was an event that would be seared into their memories for the rest of their lives – on par with the Kennedy assassination and 9/11. On that chilly January day in 1986, ...

This browser does not support the Video element. Seven astronauts were killed in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster. Because a teacher was aboard, millions of schoolchildren watched the event ...

William Lucas, a key NASA figure during the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, has passed away in Alabama at the age of ...

Their eyes were watching. Some knew something was wrong. Others were slow to realize. Soon everyone came to grief. Forty years ago Space Shuttle Challenger climbed into the clear amid blue skies over ...

It was the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida — a moment that would soon become the nation’s worst tragedy ...

Forty years ago today, Americans were stunned, shocked and saddened when the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on a cold, cloudless day in Florida. A booster leak ignited the ...

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the date of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. It occurred Feb. 1, 2003. For millions of Americans, it was an event that ...