Chunk of Challenger shuttle discovered on ocean floor

A large section of the space shuttle Challenger has been found buried in sand at the bottom of the Atlantic, more than three decades after the tragedy that killed a schoolteacher and six others.

Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre announced the discovery yesterday. ‘My heart skipped a beat, I must say, and it brought me right back to 1986 . . . and what we all went through as a nation,’ said Michael Ciannilli, a Nasa manager who confirmed the remnant’s authenticity. It’s one of the biggest pieces of Challenger found in the decades since the accident, and the first since two wing fragments washed ashore in 1996.