![Photo: Challenger lifts off from Kennedy Space Center](https://wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/06/challenger1-2.jpg)
![Photo: Challenger crew members](https://wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/06/challenger_flight_51-l_crew-1.jpg)
![Photo: Challenger Explodes](https://wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/06/challenger3.jpg)
![Photo: Challenger Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka](https://wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/06/ellison_shoji_onizuka_nasa-1.jpg)
When the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 28, 1986 and then exploded shortly afterward, seven astronauts died: Commander Francis R. Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka and Judith Resnik, and Payload Specialists Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe.
Coloradan David Klaus was a launch commander for NASA that day. Now a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, he shares his memories of those moments with Colorado Matters host Nathan Heffel.