Watch: Divers Discover Wreckage From Challenger Shuttle
Divers off the coast of Florida were looking for sunken aircraft from World War 2 and found part of the Challenger Space Shuttle instead. This video is pretty cool because you get to watch the divers question what they’re looking at. They inspect the wreckage on the ocean floor and question what it might be.
In the video, you can hear one diver ask the other, “so what do you think this is, Jim?” The other responds with “definitely an aircraft. I think we need to talk to NASA.” Turns out it was a 20-foot section of the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger that exploded in 1986. According to the video posted on the ABC News YouTube page, the thermal tiles on the wreckage came from the wing or belly of the shuttle.
This is the first time in 25 years that any segments of the shuttle have been found. The last time was in 1996 when some pieces washed ashore. The announcement of the discovery was made by NASA and The History Channel. The latter was filming for their new series “The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters”, which is set to premier this month.
The Challenger Space Shuttle exploded shortly after take-off, killing all seven people on board. The event was watched in schools across the country as it was the first flight with a teacher, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, on board. I remember watching this horrifying launch in elementary school.
Mike Barnette also remembers watching the Challenger launch. Barnette led the underwater crew that discovered the remnant of the shuttle and said it was very ‘sobering’ to realize he found a piece of that same shuttle. Regarding the day the shuttle exploded, Barnette told CNN, “I can almost smell the smells of that day. It was just so burned into my brain”.
“The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters” is a 6-part series that premieres at 10 p.m. ET on November 22 on the History Channel.
–Wendy Rush, 96.3KKLZ Las Vegas
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Moon Landing: 53 Years Later
Today (July 20, 2022) marks the 53rd anniversary of the moon landing by the United States Space Shuttle mission Apollo 11. While there were many missions prior to that one on July 20, 1969, it was the first time a human had ever stepped foot on the surface of the moon. If you were a kid when this happened, it’s hard to forget. On July 16, 1969, just seven months after NASA sent the first mission all the way to the moon (though nobody actually stepped on it) in Apollo 8, another Saturn V rocket was headed into space.
The excitement at the Kennedy Space Center and around the globe on that morning was palpable. The rocket launched just after 9:00am EST and minutes later was in orbit. When it was clear everything was running smoothly, NASA gave the order to three young astronauts to head to the moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins entered the moon’s orbit three days later and Armstrong and Aldrin climbed aboard the lunar module Eagle to make the first ever moon landing by a human. If Michael Collins isn’t as well-known in history as the first two men, it’s because he didn’t get to walk on the moon that day. He was chosen to stay behind in the command module Columbia in the lunar orbit.
Of course NASA is celebrating today’s anniversary with photos and videos of that massive achievement.
Buzz Aldrin is also getting in on the nostalgia. In his tweet today, Aldrin talked about the pride he and Neil Armstrong felt about representing our country on the Apollo 11 mission.
In honor of the occasion, we put together a collection of photos. You can see in one of the photos with the footprint that the surface of the moon is of a very fine grain. In that famous video released by NASA on that fateful day, Neil Armstrong said the surface was “almost like a powder”. How very cool to have been there.
–Wendy Rush, 96.3 KKLZ, Las Vegas
Wendy Rush is the midday host on one of Vegas's top stations, 96.3 KKLZ. She has been with the station for ten years and comes with a diverse career background. In addition to being a radio host, Wendy has lived the Vegas life as an entertainer. She has been a celebrity impersonator, rock band singer, and improv comedian. As a content creator for 96.3 KKLZ, Wendy writes about music, celebrities, mental health and wellness, and life as a Las Vegas local.
