This coming Wednesday, Jan. 28, will mark the 40-year anniversary of the Challenger explosion, one of the biggest tragedies in NASA history, which killed seven crew members aboard the space shuttle.

Forty years later, Cheryl McNair remembers the shock of watching the Challenger space shuttle fall to pieces with her husband, astronaut Ronald McNair, onboard.

“Having the first educator, Christa McAuliffe, on that flight, there was a lot of student interest because there were her lessons that she was going to do up in space that the kids could follow along ...