Challenger - 30 years ago today

[Eric Mc]

Hard to believe.

[Eric Mc]

In the UK it was BBC Newsround who broke the news as they were on air when the live pictures came in. They didn't show it live but they did show it minutes after the event.

In fact, as far as I know, only the then very new CNN were showing the launch live on TV.

[Eric Mc]

BBC ran a special Newsnight edition at 7.00 pm that evening - hosted by Peter Snow - which I videoed and still have. It's a pretty poor copy but I kept it because of its significance.

I also have a VHS tape of a Panorama that was shown a few weeks later called "The Dream that Fell Out of the Sky". It was presented by reporter Robert Harris, who is now a very successful novelist.

[Eric Mc]

This time of the year has not been good for NASA. Columbia was lost on 1 February 2003.