35 years ago, on January 28th, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. The low temperature in Melbourne, Florida that morning was 26°F, a record low for the day which still stands, and which enabled the plume from the disaster to be visible from space, s\as seen in the photo from NOAA (below).
The plume from the explosion was captured by GOES-6, just off the coast of Cape Canaveral
