Challenger-The Final Flight

If you're bored playing the "safer at home" game (and who isn't), here's a 4 hour, 4 part Netflix series that will rock you even if you're too young to remember the "Teacher" flight that went tragically awry.

 

I'm old enough to remember.  I may have forgotten the details, but "Challenger-The Final Flight" brought it all back.  My vaguest memories are of the bureaucratic fight over the fault for the failure of the O rings that brought the Challenger down.  That fight is covered without comment by the producers; you have to make up your own mind about who bears the ultimate responsibility for the gruesome deaths of 7 of our best and brightest.

NASA, always in budget and operational crises, spiced up this flight by including a "regular person" aboard the doomed shuttle. It was mostly a marketing campaign to keep Congress writing checks for NASA.  That turned out to be a sort of Russian Roulette, and NASA knew that from the outset.

Christa McCauliff, a teacher from Concord NH, was chosen for the role of NASA spokeswoman.  She was to do several lessons from space, beaming those lessons back to earth and to the students eagerly watching every second of McCauliff's presentations.  Because McCauliff was the first teacher in space, classrooms all over the country were tuned in to the launch.  The result was traumatizing hundreds of thousands of children.

The power of "Challenger-The Final Flight" is the family, friends, and NASA employees who were assembled for the production.  They provide a personal and poignant inside view of NASA and the Challenger tragedy.  

The case is compelling..all with personal stories to tell.  By far the most compelling, though is the personal story of William Lucas, Director, NASA, 1974-1986, Marshall Space Center (left).  Lucas made the final decision to launch the Challenger on January 28, 1986. He knew the risks, but dismissed them as negligible.  He overruled engineers and specialists who pleaded to scrub the launch.  His decision was a huge blunder that anyone can clearly see, unless your name is William Lucas.

Most of us can recognize our mistakes.  Lucas cannot.  He made a very bad decision.  Seven fine people paid with their lives.  Even so, Lucas looks straight into the camera and says under the same conditions as he had in 1986, he would make the same decision today.  He has learned nothing and takes no responsibility whatsoever for his actions on January 28,1986.  Whether that sounds like the current President I'll leave to you readers.

For the fans of current American history, "Challenger-The Final Flight" is Must See TV.  For the rest of us, it's a great quarantine choice.  But beware.  Your understanding of NASA may be permanently altered...and not for the better.

Netflix is such a successful content platform, if you don't have it on your TV, you probably know someone who does.  While I would never recommend illegal sharing of passwords, "Challenger-The Final Flight," is well worth the $10 or so for a month even if you cancel next month.

Directed by Daniel Junge & Steven Leckart, Executive Producer:  JJ Abrams

NOTES:

While "Challenger-The Final Flight" is basically a G rated film, younger school children may be disturbed by the death of a school teacher.