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https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/10/world/shuttle-challenger-nasa-discovered-documentary-crew-scnExplorers trudged the Atlantic Ocean searching for World War II artifacts lost at sea, but they stumbled on something else — a 20-foot-long piece of debris from the Space Shuttle Challenger, which was destroyed shortly after takeoff in 1986.
The History Channel and NASA revealed Thursday that the Challenger segment was discovered off Florida’s east coast during the filming of a new series called “The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters.” The series is set to premiere this month on the History Channel.
The Challenger broke apart after its launch on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard, including a teacher was set to become the first civilian in space. TV viewers, especially students in schools across the US, watched a live broadcast of the blast in horror that morning.
Mike Barnette and his team of investigators set off in March to search suspected shipwreck sites in the Bermuda Triangle, a swath of the northern Atlantic Ocean said to be the site of dozens of shipwrecks and plane crashes. The team also set its sights on one area outside the triangle, just off Florida’s Space Coast, where NASA has launched rockets since its inception.
The team was searching for a WWII-era rescue plane that mysteriously disappeared in December 1945, but a more modern object partially covered by sand on the seafloor sparked interest and further investigation from the dive team, according to the History Channel.