NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded and broke apart Jan. 28, 1986, in the sky over East-Central Florida, killing the seven astronauts on board.

NASA's first tragedy is recalled annually at Launch Complex 34. This year is different, as the Artemis II mission sits on the horizon.

NASA is getting ready to launch its massive, fully expendable rocket for the first crewed flight to the Moon since Apollo. The agency’s new era of spaceflight comes with a few parts from its past, specifically three rocket engines that have previously flown on space shuttle missions.

A nation watched in horror as the space shutter Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, during a live television broadcast. Reality: No it didn’t, and no it didn’t. Challenger was the second shuttle to go into space,

The rollout on Saturday, Jan. 17, of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is a crucial step signaling that NASA is in the final stretches to get its first crewed lunar mission in five decades off the ground. That mission, known as Artemis 2, will send three Americans and one Canadian on a 10-day trip around the moon.

When the space shuttle Atlantis blasts off on Friday, it will mark the final NASA shuttle mission ever. But the shuttering of the 30-year-old program isn’t the end of American space exploration — in fact, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden ...

NASA moved the rocket slated to carry four astronauts around the moon to the launch pad on Saturday, a key step as the Artemis II moon mission nears.

The tragic explosion of the Challenger space shuttle killed all 7 spacefarers on board. A pilot for the mission was from North Carolina.