Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address: What's Up With the Title?

    Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address: What's Up With the Title?

      The speech doesn't really have a title, but is has a stuffy, official name:

      "Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger Address to the Nation, January 28, 1986."

      Cut and dried...and wrong. Reagan's speech was written and delivered before any investigation into the Challenger accident took place. Everyone thought the space shuttle had exploded. It was later determined that the shuttle didn't so much explode as fall apart like an H&M sweatshirt after two washes and a tumble dry on low.

      Regardless, the official name of the speech was recorded in the history books and the misconception about Challenger's unfortunate demise endures.