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Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video

longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."

4 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Houston... by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 3, Funny

    Houston, they've got trouble of some kind...

  2. Why do NASA engineers drink Coke? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because they can't get 7 up.

  3. Public domain? by houghi · · Score: 5, Funny

    How could they? They violated his copyright and took away any incentive for the man to make another movie.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  4. Re:Speculation... by Chapter80 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I do, too. I was sitting in my high school history class, and the teacher rolled in a TV so we could watch the broadcast. Come to think of it, this was probably one of the most important lessons I learned in school: our technology is impressive, but not infallible.

    Why, didn't the TV work?