The Challenger captured America’s attention in 1986, with its heart-wrenching launch-turned-disaster.
In the moments before it all went wrong, Americans held their breath as the Challenger lifted off, not just toward its mission, but toward its promise to reinvigorate the American spirit. Full of potential, the 7-member crew flew for just 73 seconds, before an explosion onboard crushed their hopes-- and those of so many Americans watching on live television.
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Netflix’s new docuseries Challenger: The Final Flight dives into the tragic accident. Re-examining the Challenger disaster through the accounts of those working for NASA and material directly from the archives, the docuseries sheds new light on the doomed launch.
The series not only looks at what the Challenger mission represented to NASA and the nation as a whole, but also its meaning for the astronauts onboard—and ultimately for their families following the failure. Looking more deeply into the failure, the docuseries also shows how the disaster was rooted in far more than just faulty mechanics. The series suggests that the Challenger explosion was the product of hasty and problematic work, guided by an overriding concern for how the mission would be perceived.
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Determined to tell the full story, Challenger: The Final Flight sets the mission in context, shares the story on a moving personal level, and offers new insight on how it all went wrong. With executive producers J.J. Abrams and Glen Zipper, this just released Netflix docuseries reveals how the Challenger launch came to embody so much more than just a failure in space exploration.
Watch the trailer below, then start streaming the series today!
Featured still from "Challenger: The Final Flight" via Netflix
