The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Investigation

It was 1986 and the U.S. Air Force was on the cusp of something unprecedented in human spaceflight — launching a space shuttle crew from California and paving the way for people to fly true polar missions.

On the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, crew families, friends and space workers gathered Thursday to remember the 17 men and women who lost their lives on the high frontier, 14 in two space shuttle disasters and three in an Apollo-era launch pad fire 49 years ago Wednesday.

Awe-inspiring onboard video views of Atlantis’ launch captured from cameras mounted on the solid rocket boosters. Check out these amazing videos of the spacecraft soaring to orbit on the final space shuttle mission.