The Challenger launch was uniquely targeted to school age audiences because of the mission’s inclusion of teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was chosen from among 11,000 educators who applied to be considered for the program. McAuliffe was slated to present lessons on Halley’s Comet from on board the Challenger to appeal to students. In the news media, the Challenger became known as “the teacher flight.”

Prior to the Challenger disaster, there had not been a single person killed on an American mission to space. Most of the people watching the Challenger broadcast live on television were school children with access to a special feed. Although many onlookers were immediately aware of the catastrophic implications of the explosion, there were many who still held out hope that the protective measures put in place might have saved the lives of the astronauts, and that they would be recovered from the ocean in an escape pod. Many teachers reacted exactly as Ms. Salonga did, not knowing what to tell their students, and many children were frightened, confused, and consumed by misunderstanding of what they had just witnessed.

The Challenger disaster happened as a result of atmospheric temperatures incompatible with the rubber o-rings used to seal the joints in one of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters.