It's been 40 years since the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing high school teacher Christa McAuliffe and the six astronauts aboard. McAuliffe had been selected for a trip on the Challenger from a pool of more than 11,000 teachers who had applied for NASA's inaugural Teacher in Space Project. Grade school students on Long Island and nationwide took special interest in the flight, since McAuliffe was planning to give lessons from space. #newyork #spaceship #astronaut Subscribe to our YouTube channel: bit.ly/3jLQjUN Subscribe to Newsday.com: newsday.com/socialoffer ~ FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA ~ @newsday on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. @newsday.tv on TikTok.