Amateur footage of Challenger explosion found

Jeffrey Ault filmed the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger with a Super 8mm movie camera; the footage was unearthed 26 years later. / Huffington Post

(CBS News) Twenty-six years after the devastating explosion of the space shuttle Challenger during launch, new amateur footage of the event has surfaced, offering a new perspective of that tragic day.

The January 28, 1986 disaster was captured by then-19-year-old Jeffrey Ault with a Super 8mm camera while visiting Florida, and has now been made available to The Huffington Post.

It had been stored in a box at Ault's home.

Ault was with his parents and a friend for the launch. "I was hoping to see an event that I would remember for the rest of my life," Ault said in an email to The Huffington Post. "I did. Just not the way I would have liked to."

At the beginning of the footage, one can hear the sound of awe and excitement from the crowd as the Challenger lifts off leaving a straight trail of smoke. However, about 73 seconds into the launch, there's an explosion and the smoke - trails from the shuttle's rocket boosters - diverges in two directions.

On the video is Steve Nesbitt's voice from the Mission Control Center: "Obviously a major malfunction." Then later he announces that the shuttle has exploded.

The Challenger shuttle explosion killed seven crew members. According to NASA, the cause was an O-ring problem in a rocket booster.

Watch Jeffrey Ault's recording of the 1986 Challenger explosion, courtesy of The Huffington Post:

[bobnjersey]

[The Challenger shuttle explosion killed seven crew members. According to NASA, the cause was an O-ring problem in a rocket booster.]
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actually ... the cause was a bunch of nasa administrators that were more concerned about 'pr' for the space program than safety ... and ignored multiple and unambiguous warnings from morton thiokol engineers that the launch should not have occurred due to the cold weather conditions of the previous night.

[rwsmith29456]

Go Fever. They knew the orbiter was colder than it ever has been. In the investigation Richard Feynman put a piece of o-ring in ice water and then snapped it in two easily with his fingers.

[Jhihmoac]

Nice clear perspective of a "major malfunction"...Where was this hiding?

[Skruffy1]

And this is newsworthy because of what? It's not even very good footage.

[jscott418-21618367473133020464]

Its worse quality then anything else I have ever seen. Why is this news? It does not show anything we already have not seen with better quality.

[TheNecropolis]

"Oh that's beautiful" - random crowd lady