It exploded 36 years ago, with seven astronauts on board.
Divers discovered off the coast of Florida (USA) debris of the Challenger spaceship, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean 36 years ago, The New York Times reports. Then all seven members of the crew died, this is one of the most tragic disasters in the history of American cosmonautics.
Divers descended to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in February to film a television program hoping to find a search and rescue plane that disappeared in 1945. As a result, they discovered a flat metal object. But to say with certainty that it was, the divers could not and returned to this place again in May.
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Then they realized that they had managed to find a fragment of the “Challenger” that exploded on January 28, 1986. As a result, all seven crew members died, and the disaster was watched on television by people all over the country. In the weeks after the disaster, NASA searched for wreckage in the ocean, but at least one wreckage remained undiscovered all this time.
NASA also confirmed the divers' discovery. The agency's representatives studied pictures of the wreckage site and confirmed that the fragment is indeed part of the Challenger. The agency is still trying to find out which part of the shuttle the fragment is. Based on the amount of red on it, it could be a bottom fragment.
The fragment is 4.5 meters long and 4.5 meters wide. It is covered by dark squares, partially filled with sand.
That they are returning from the coast of Florida, outside the Triangle, the mark of the first discovery wreckage since 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger more than 25 years. Don't go to the premiere of Bermuda Triangle: In April Water on Tuesday, November 22 at 10/9C. pic.twitter.com/LWUoFXxEnK
— HISTORY (@HISTORY) November 10, 2022
“For millions of people around the world, including me, on January 28 1986 still seems like yesterday. This discovery gives us the opportunity to pause once again, raise the legacy of the seven pioneers we lost, and think about how this tragedy has changed us,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
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17 years later after the Challenger explosion, another shuttle, Columbia, exploded during reentry on February 1, 2003, killing seven crew members and sending debris flying across Texas.
