The one-hour special includes no narration and no commentators, instead unfolding the story solely through the reports of journalists covering the story at the time, extensive audio and video recordings from NASA and archived interviews with the flight crew and others who were part of the one-of-a-kind mission.

During one of the opening scenes in Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes, viewers see rare footage of McAuliffe rehearsing lesson plans onboard the space shuttle and later testing out science experiments in a gravity-free environment. These lessons were intended to be done live from space and beamed into classrooms nationwide.

Some of the rarely seen and iconic moments featured in the special include the following:

*NASA’s interviews with Christa McAuliffe, the winner of the Teacher in Space Program, and Barbara Morgan, the backup teacher who was selected to train alongside Christa in case of any last-minute problems
*Candid video and photos of McAuliffe touring the space shuttle with her husband and two young children
*Audio recordings from inside the Challenger cockpit during takeoff, including Cmdr. Dick Scobee’s final words just before the space shuttle exploded
*Footage of the launch pad during the launch at Canaveral, Fla., and inside Mission Control in Houston, Tex., as the disaster unfolded
*Video of students at Concord High School in New Hampshire, who watched in horror as the space shuttle exploded with their beloved teacher inside it, as well as unforgettable video of those seated in the Grand Stand at the launch site, who witnessed the explosion firsthand.
*Behind-the-scenes NASA footage of Vice President George Bush and Sen. John Glenn talking to members of the Challenger launch team hours after the explosion. They both traveled to Houston to tell the launch team that the nation was standing with them.
*Recordings of local New Hampshire radio reporters who followed Christa during the year that she prepared for the launch, and their eyewitness accounts as they stood in the grandstands watching the tragedy unfold.
*Behind-the-scenes footage at the CNN Newsroom in Atlanta as reporters scrambled to cover the explosion as it happened.

The compelling footage and audio recordings are intricately linked together to capture the drama of what happened and the lasting effect it had on the whole nation in Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes.