In the News: Long-lost wreckage from the Challenger spacecraft discovered near Bermuda Triangle

 Here's an ending to a tragic story that began in 1986, when NASA's Challenger Shuttle exploded minutes after take off. For decades divers have been seeking a lot of the wreckage and have now found more near the Bermuda Triangle. Here's the story from Live Science.

Caption: Underwater explorer and marine biologist Mike Barnetteand wreck diver Jimmy Gadomski exploring a twenty-foot segment of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger (Image credit: The HISTORY channel)

Long-lost wreckage from the Challenger spacecraft discovered near Bermuda Triangle

By Bruce Westbrook LIVE SCIENCE Nov 2022

Roughly half the space shuttle Challenger, which tragically exploded in 1986, remains missing. Now, one more piece has come to light off the Florida coast.

NASA has confirmed that debris found on the ocean floor off Florida's Atlantic coast comes from the fallen space shuttle Challenger, which exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Divers discovered the 20-foot (6 meters) section of Challenger's hull while searching for downed World War II-era aircraft as part of a History Channel documentary series, "The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters." Northwest of the Triangle, the filmmakers found a patch of seafloor containing modern-looking debris, partially covered in sand. Given the debris' proximity to NASA's Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida, the filmmakers thought it could be linked to the space agency and contacted NASA about the discovery.

NASA examined the team's footage and confirmed that the debris was from Challenger. NASA then notified the families of the seven astronauts before announcing the discovery Nov. 10.

The hull — the first major Challenger find in more than 25 years — will remain on the ocean floor while NASA determines the next step in its recovery. By law, all such debris belongs to the federal government.

At the time of its 10th launch, dubbed STS-51L, Challenger was one of four space shuttles operated by NASA, and the agency had been flying the reusable "space trucks" to and from low Earth orbit for almost five years. NASA later learned that freezing temperatures on the night before launch compromised a seal on a solid rocket booster, causing explosive disintegration of the orbiter 73 seconds into flight.

The seven-person crew included a schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe, who would have given live lessons from orbit. The planned six-day mission would also have seen astronauts conducting scientific research and releasing a satellite from the shuttle's payload bay.