Video: 31 years since Challenger tragedy

A NASA video on the investigation into the Challenger accident of January 28, 1986. The video was created by the STS 51-L Data and Design Analysis Task Force which contributed to the Presidential Commission that investigated the tragedy. (Membership required)

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.

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.