On one of the darkest days in NASA history, NEWS CENTER Maine’s Pat Callaghan was there
A look back at the saga of the Space Shuttle, forty years after it first blasted into orbit Author: Rob Caldwell Updated: 6:01 PM EDT May 17, 2021
PORTLAND, Maine When NEWS CENTER Maine’s Pat Callaghan traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in January of 1986 to report on the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, he did not pack winter clothes. Who takes a parka and mittens when leaving Maine for Florida?
The overnight temperatures at Cape Canaveral were freezing literally below 32 degrees and so was Pat in the days leading up to the launch as he stood in the outdoor press stands, where gusty winds made the cold even more biting. Shivering in a light raincoat, Pat needed warm clothes, so he and photographer Josh Bradford headed to Sears, where the selection was so poor that he ended up buying the only product he could find for his hands: a pair of garde