Not long after the final space shuttle launch in 2011, McClean Fahnestock created “The Grand Finale,” a piece in which he merged footage from all 135 launches onto a single screen. We’re not sure how this clip escaped us until now, but we’re glad we found it. (Thanks, UniverseToday)
Yes, it does include footage of STS-51-L, the failed launch of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. And in an interesting bit of editing, while the audio from the other launches is garbled into the sort of din you’d hear in a crowded restaurant, it sounds like Fahnestock upped the volume on the haunting words of NASA spokesman Steve Nesbitt: “Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.”