January 28, 2026 marks 40 years to the day the world watched in horror as Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into liftoff, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
For countless people from Generation X, many of whom were schoolchildren at the time, this was their shock moment in history witnessed in real time.
"You remember where you were, what you were doing, what you did, every step of the way," said Tim Collins, a Western New York astronomer who sits on the board of the Buffalo Astronomical Association. He was a high school student when Challenger suffered its fate.
"It kind of puts you back in the same boat when your parents said the same thing about JFK," he added. "Like, yeah, I remember, and that happened 40 years ago, and thinking, wow, I'm actually here now. But it was kind of a defining moment, wasn't it?”
Some local students were not in class on the morning of the space shuttle disaster. It was around the time of exams, and many teens who weren't scheduled to take an exam that day were instead home from school. Collins was shoveling snow out of the family driveway when, he recalled, his brother ran outside to tell him what had happened.
He later went to his girlfriend's house, where he continued to watch news coverage of the tragedy. As a budding astronomy buff, Collins feared the events of the day might also be the death of U.S. space exploration.
"I remember saying to her that, you know, this could be the end of everything, or it's going to be the beginning of something new," he recalled. "I felt extremely sad because I was starting to get interested. Halley's Comet was here, just getting here at that point in time, in 1986.”
Halley's Comet, following all the hype, turned out to be a disappointment to amateur astronomers. Worse, following the Challenger disaster the Space Shuttle program was shut down for more than two years as investigators determined the cause of the explosion and then redesigned the system to prevent a similar incident in the future. (The Challenger explosion was linked to two faulty O-rings in one of the solid rocket boosters which allowed hot exhaust gas to escape from inside the booster.)
The seven astronauts killed aboard Challenger included Gregory Jarvis, a Michigan native who earned a bachelor degree in electrical engineering from the University at Buffalo. Also killed were Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
McAuliffe’s school watched the disaster unfold during a student assembly, and her family witnessed it from the ground at Kennedy Space Center.
“Her class, her whole school, actually was watching it live. And you just kind of empathize with your fellow students at that point, like, what? What must that have been like?" Collins said. "You've got somebody, your teacher, who's actually going into space, the first one. And then that happens. I think that hit home to a lot of us school kids at the time.”
Memorials will be held for the late astronauts. While for some it may be a fading memory or just another published entry in a history book, Collins points out there are continuing living legacies in Western New York.
For example, there are Challenger Learning Centers, space education museums located throughout the nation including Lockport and Olean.
"I don't want to speak for them, but I've been there before, and they have got a nice mockup of Mission Control. And they give kids duties and assign them," Collins said. "They will be on, say, the space shuttle, and then half the class will be in Mission Control. And they work together to try to solve a common problem. I think that's a great way to introduce kids to hands-on experience for space exploration.”
Meanwhile on UB's North Campus, Jarvis Hall is named in memory of its late alumnus.
Challenger was not the only space shuttle tragedy. Columbia burned and broke up upon re-entry on February 1, 2003, killing seven astronauts. That disaster was caused when a piece of foam broke off the shuttle's external tank and struck the underside of the orbiter, breaching the panels which provided protection from the extreme heat of re-entry.
Despite tragedies and low points in the U.S. space program, manned space flight continues with crews traveling to and from the International Space Station. Currently, a crew of four astronauts are preparing to fly aboard Artemis 2, a planned mission to travel around the moon which could launch as early as February. It would be the first manned lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Collins, whose work promoting astronomy includes co-hosting the podcast The 7th Magnitude, has felt the lows, but even on the day the Challenger met its fate, he heard a message of hope.
"It was just an overall sad day. But then, hearing Ronald Reagan come on later that evening with that speech and talking about the 'surly bonds of earth,' that stuck with me," he said "And it's been with me since that time, and it kind of shaped what I'm doing today.”
