28 years later: Space Shuttle Challenger photos you've never seen

Michael Hindes was looking through some old boxes of photographs at his grandparents' house when he came across images of what appeared to be a normal shuttle launch. As he flipped through them, he and his family had what he called an "overwhelming moment" of realization.

They were photos of the 1986 Challenger disaster, as it happened.

Hindes' grandfather, Bill Rendle, worked as a contractor for NASA years ago, and Hindes says Rendle got to see "just about every launch." The images were given to Rendle by a friend who also worked for NASA. Rendle showed the pictures to others, but as time passed, they were shuffled among other photographs and forgotten.

When Hindes' grandmother died recently in Quincy, Massachusetts, the family decided to organize photos for her memorial, and that's when they came across the Challenger pictures. Hindes said his grandfather was overcome. "His face dropped when he saw the photos." He shared the images on Reddit.

http://imgur.com/a/6t1HW