DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: First, our observation of CNN's 20th anniversary continues.</s>TOM MINTIER, CNN LONDON BUREAU CHIEF: I covered many shuttle missions. This one was going to take a schoolteacher, an American schoolteacher, a woman, into space.</s>MINTIER: It was something that everyone was excited about. It was being broadcast into all of the schools in America.</s>NASA MISSION CONTROL: Three, two , one and liftoff. Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission, and it has clear the tower.</s>MINTIER: So the 25th space shuttle is now on the way after more delays than NASA cares to count. This morning it looked as though they were not going to be able to get off.</s>NASA MISSION CONTROL: Humming at 15 seconds, velocity at 2,900 feet per second. Altitude nine nautical miles, downrange distance seven nautical miles...</s>MINTIER: When I saw the fireball in the sky on my monitor, I thought surely there will be an escape, that this is only a solid rocket that has exploded, the main capsule, we'll see it in a few seconds and it will be landing back at the Kennedy Space Center.</s>NASA MISSION CONTROL: Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.</s>MINTIER: I remember holding my breath for the longest time, waiting for something good to say, and there are no words that can express what I was feeling at that time.
CNN 20: Challenger Disaster, January 28, 1986