Video: 31 years since Challenger tragedy

Thirty years after the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated in the clear, cold sky high above Cape Canaveral, the commander’s widow no longer feels anger at NASA and the management missteps and schedule pressure that kept the orbiters flying despite a fatal flaw in their solid-fuel boosters.

The crew of Space Shuttle mission STS 41-B provide an overview of their mission. Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center on February 3, 1984, and although the flight was marred by the failure of two commercial satellite deployments, astronaut Bruce McCandless made history by making the first untethered spacewalk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit jet pack.

Veteran CBS News correspondent Bruce Hall was not on the air when the shuttle Challenger blasted off 30 years ago Thursday. It was, after all, the 25th shuttle flight, the first of 16 planned for 1986, and news agencies were backing off expensive, remote coverage of what increasingly appeared to be a routine event.