The story of NASA's space shuttle Challenger can be considered as one of mankind's saddest stories in its attempt to conquer space. In the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, Challenger exploded in mid-air and disintegrated about 73.62 seconds after lifting off. All of the seven astronauts aboard the spacecraft, died. Upon investigation, the problem was traced to a seal in its right solid rocket booster that might have failed because of the cold weather. Fast forward to 2014, never before seen 26 colored images of the ill-fated Challenger has been discovered in West Springfield, Massachusetts.
Michael Hindes discovered the old photographs as he was searching for images to display in the memorial service for her departed grandmother.
"My grandmother actually passed peacefully last week, and was because of her passing that I found these. We were all going through boxes and boxes of photos to find pictures to display at her memorial. I just happened to get the box with the Challenger pictures at the bottom, which was kind of special for me because I am the biggest NASA fan in the family," Hindes going by the username American Mustache on Reddit shared. The thread on Reddit had received more than 2,000 comments as of reporting.
The series of images document the launch to the last seconds of Space Shuttle Challenger. The spacecraft is immortalized as it commenced its launch, went up into the air, exploded, disintegrated, and the last image of what could be debris streaking back to earth.,
I'd like to mention that the Reddit thread was really quite moving. I'd invite people to read the hundreds of stories that so many people took the time to share. It's nice to know that the Challenger disaster is still such a part of people's hearts and minds," he told science blog io9 via email.
Hindes clarified that it was not his grandfather, Bill Rendle, who took the photos although he worked for the space agency. He also wrote to NASA and told them about the photo and at the same time inquired if the agency has copies of the images but it has not replied yet.
"The man who took the pictures was part of [my grandfather's crew]. He gave a copy of the set to my grandfather,". The said friend of his grandfather worked as an electrician for NASA. Hindes' grandfather cannot recall the name of his friend who took the photos.
You can see all of the images of the Challenger Disaster through Hindes' account on Imgur.
