Divers Find Challenger Space Shuttle Wreckage Off Florida Coast

Underwater explorer and marine biologist Mike Barnette and wreck diver Jimmy Gadomski explore a twenty-foot segment of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger, the team discovered in the waters off the coast of Fla., in this handout picture taken on May 2022. The History Channel/Handout via Reuters

Divers from a documentary crew looking for the wreckage of a World War Two aircraft off the coast of Florida found a 20-foot section of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded and broke apart shortly after its launch in 1986, NASA said on Thursday.

The divers contacted NASA after spotting a large, clearly modern object mostly covered in sand at the bottom of the ocean and bearing the shuttle’s distinctive tiles, the space agency said in a written statement.