Challenger

A Made for TV Movie with at least some merit.
The Challenger disaster was an emotional letdown after years and years of space successes. Suddenly, what had seemed routine was demonstrated to be not so routine after all.

Roughly four years after the fact this made for TV movie came out and I remember watching it with interest at the time. Peter Boyle's portrayal of Roger Boisjoly, the Morton Thiokol engineer that had opposed the launch of Challenger, was the high point of the movie for me.

Karen Allen played an effervescent Christa Mcauliffe. Upon my first viewing I was convinced that her portrayal was hopelessly idealized portraying Mcauliffe as a self sacrificing super-teacher but I have since learned that in real life Christa Mcauliffe was in fact much like the person portrayed in the movie.

As long as one remembers that this is a docu-drama with some dramatic license employed the movie remains enjoyable in spite of being a bit sappy in places. The subject matter is something I think is very...

Very interesting look into a part of history.
I think this a great movie that gives you a chance to see the crew from a personal point of view. Also all the mistakes NASA and Morton Thiacal made are in this movie. The cast is great and makes me hungry for more information and insite on this tragic event in history.

Best movie about STS-51L
I'm a nasa engineer. This movie although old, is a very good insight into how nasa's shuttle program was run even after we lost Challenger. Some will disagree but there was always some degree of launch fever. Right up thru STS-135. Losing Challeneger and Columbia were preventable accidents if the managers listened to their engineers and this movie gives you a very realistic look at the bureaucracy that has and always will be part of nasa until America accepts some risk in space exploration.

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