{"id":441694,"date":"2026-01-27T23:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/441694\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T23:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T23:36:11","slug":"today-in-history-january-28-millions-of-schoolchildren-almost-saw-big-bird-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/441694\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History &#8211; January 28: Millions of schoolchildren almost saw Big Bird die"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The most banal of problems led to an explosion that killed seven astronauts 73 seconds after takeoff on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/today-in-history\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"January 28, 1986\">January 28, 1986<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The massive rubber rings were intended to contain the hot gases caused by burning rocket fuel.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/2267d33b-427a-423f-be31-19b25e1923b9.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>The NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lift-off. (AAP)<\/p>\n<p>But the stark temperature changes from a profoundly cold morning to the white-hot heat of take-off caused the O-rings to fail.<\/p>\n<p>Before that day&#8217;s launch, the coldest takeoff had taken place on a 12-degree day. When the Challenger launched, it was -3 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Engineers were concerned about the effect of the cold weather on the rubber rings, but NASA pushed to launch the space shuttle anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the pressure to launch on that day was a scheduled broadcast of the takeoff being shown in schools across America.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/b335cc8b-eabb-4052-b2ea-6ac91feee874.jpeg\"   alt=\"The crew included teacher Christa McAuliffe.\"\/>The crew included teacher Christa McAuliffe. (NASA)<\/p>\n<p>For the first time a teacher was being sent to space.<\/p>\n<p>Christa McAuliffe was selected out of 11,000 applicants as part of the Teacher in Space program.<\/p>\n<p>McAuliffe was chosen so she could communicate with students in space.<\/p>\n<p>But the program was not the original plan.<\/p>\n<p>As a way to educate and engage with young children, NASA considered launching the Sesame Street character Big Bird into space.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/095f2b95-f21a-4cb5-aaf9-de33c2dc84a4.jpeg\"   alt=\"Caroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, has retired from his role on Sesame Street.\"\/>Caroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, was offered a trip on the Challenger. (Sesame Workshop\/Robert Fuhring)&#8221;I once got a letter from NASA, asking if I would be willing to join a mission to orbit the Earth as Big Bird,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/entertainment\/viral\/big-bird-caroll-spinney-ama\/45de327f-6c68-4fc2-af02-13be3812d4e7\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"puppeteer Carol Spinney\">puppeteer Carol Spinney<\/a> said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There wasn&#8217;t enough room for the puppet in the end, and I was replaced by a teacher.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An estimated 2.5 million school children watched the Challenger blow up.<\/p>\n<p>Though it was not apparent at the time, a study found at least some of the astronauts survived the initial explosion.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/5865544d-f117-4f1c-9573-aea605ad80e7.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>The Challenger disaster was a severe blow to the American space program.  (AP)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honoured us by the manner in which they lived their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth&#8217; to touch the face of God.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There were no further manned flights until September 1988.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most banal of problems led to an explosion that killed seven astronauts 73 seconds after takeoff on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-441694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}