'I watched live from my lounge room as Challenger exploded.'

On millions of televisions around the world, we all watched on in horror.

I didn’t find out until years later that the crew of space shuttle Challenger were alive for three, excruciating minutes, well aware they were plunging to their deaths after the shuttle exploded. Loved ones watching on the ground and well wishers quickly went from clapping and cheering to sobbing.

It was by sheer accident that I watched the tragedy unfold that morning. It was 1986. I was 10 and had gotten into the habit of waking up early in the morning to watch cartoons before my family woke up and I had to start getting ready for school.

I can’t remember the exact time it was but I remember getting up before the sun had even risen. I tip-toed into the lounge so that nobody would hear me creeping out of bed. If confronted later in the morning I would claim that I had only been up for around 30 minutes and had gotten plenty of sleep.

That morning, instead of my usual cartoons, every channel was showing live pictures of what seemed to be a space shuttle mission. At first I thought it was a movie but once I discovered it was being shown on every channel, I realised it must be live.

I began to wonder why a space shuttle launch was being shown live. Why was Challenger so special? It turned out that one of the reasons Challenger was so special was a teacher by the name of Christa McAuliffe.

It was in 1984 that President Ronald Reagan announced the NASA Teacher in Space Project with the purpose of increasing public interest in the space shuttle program. Christa was chosen out of 11,000 applicants. She had planned to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from space, however instead became one of seven astronauts killed that day when the shuttle erupted and broke apart just 73 seconds after launch.

January 28 marked the 30 year anniversary of the Challenger explosion and with it comes renewed interest in the details of that day. President Barack Obama marked the day, talking about the crew's sacrifice and heroism.

"These brave women and men are forever a part of a story that is ongoing," US President Barack Obama said, as reported by ABC. "It is a story that will bring human beings to Mars and out into our solar system — and beyond. It is a story made possible by their sacrifice and heroism."

That morning, I had no idea what I was about to witness. All I knew was that I was enthralled by this teacher and impressed by her bravery. She was all smiles as she boarded the space shuttle. The world was watching. Her family and friends were on the ground watching. Her students were watching.

In fact, most school students in the U.S. were tuning in to that very moment from their classrooms.

That's why what happened next was so devastating. Everyone was watching. There was no hiding from the tragedy.

The attention the mission was receiving was part of the problem that lead to the disaster in the first place.

The footage of Challenger exploding is still chilling, 30 years later. Warning: video may be distressing for some viewers. Article continues after this video.

The launch seemed perfect. From the launch location at Cape Canaveral in Florida, there had been some concern about cold weather and frost on the fuel tanks, but the pressure was on and the world was watching. There had already been delays and reschedules. Another delay wasn't ideal so that day they decided to proceed.

It's after Houston instructs pilot Michael John Smith, "Challenger, go with throttle up" that it explodes. What nobody understood at the time was the frost on the fuel tanks had damaged the material of the tanks. The O-ring component, as well as several other components, had not been designed to operate in such low temperatures. As soon as the astronauts throttled up, that was all that was needed for the breech to turn into a massive explosion from which there was no recovery.

Christa would have been the first teacher in space.

She and her fellow six crew members died that day. The official records list them as Teacher-in-Space payload specialist Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist Gregory Jarvis and astronaut Judith A. Resnik, mission specialist Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, mission commander Ronald E. McNair, mission specialist Mike J. Smith and Ellison S. Onizuka, mission specialist.

NASA desperately tried to hide the fact that the doomed crew had most probably been alive after the shuttle exploded, aware of everything that was happening and about to happen. The last words on the in-flight recorder were, "Uh oh".

It was reporter Dennis E. Powell of Miami Herald’s Tropic magazine who revealed the grim truth two years later,

Though the shuttle had broken to pieces, the crew compartment was intact. It stabilized in a nose-down attitude within 10 to 20 seconds, say the investigators. Even if the compartment was gradually losing pressure, those on the flight deck would certainly have remained conscious long enough to catch a glimpse of the green-brown Atlantic rushing toward them. If it lost its pressurization very slowly or remained intact until it hit the water, they were conscious and cognizant all the way down.

The movie Space Camp was released just five months later and was wildly successful, in part due to the disaster that had proceeded it.

It wasn't until space shuttle Columbia exploded during re-entry on February 1, 2003 that I felt similar horror. This time the crew died instantly. David M. Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon were all lost. This time it was due to some foam insulation breaking off the external tank and striking the left wing during launch. This can be seen during footage of take off.

The sad reality is space travel is incredibly dangerous and all the planning and designing and training will only get you so far. The brave men and women, the extraordinary minds we have lost as a result of space exploration, will always be remembered.

They are the reason boys and girls still dream of, one day, becoming astronauts and contributing to the future of humankind and our eventual, and some say inevitable, relocation to another planet.