Amazon MGM Studios this week officially greenlit The Challenger, starring Kristen Stewart as astronaut and physicist Sally Ride. The series will trace Ride’s path through the astronaut program as the first American woman in space, and later her role on the commission that investigated the fatal 1986 Challenger disaster.

No filming locations have been announced. Whether production will seek access to Kennedy Space Center, as many other movie and TV projects have, remains an open question. Given that the series covers events that happened here, and that the remains of Challenger are interred at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a production footprint on the Space Coast would be a natural fit, and KSC does accommodate film and television crews through its media program.

The series is inspired by Meredith E. Bagby’s 2023 book The New Guys, developed by Kyra Sedgwick’s Big Swing Productions alongside Amblin Television and Stewart’s own Nevermind Pictures production label. Bagby grew up in Florida fascinated by space and the Shuttle program. She later secured hundreds of hours of interviews with members of the Astronaut Class of ’78, who will serve as a brain trust on the production.

At this time, no other actors who will participate in the project have been named.

Thirty-Five New Guys

That class, officially named NASA Group 8, selected in 1978 but nicknamed “TFNG” — was unlike any that came before it. The series will follow the broader group, which included the first LGBT member, the first Black and Asian American astronauts and a married couple, as NASA deliberately set out to recruit a new, more diverse generation of space travelers than the astronauts who were previously selected by the agency.

Ride, who joined at age 27, became not only the first American woman in space but also the youngest American to reach orbit at the time of her 1983 flight on STS-7 aboard Challenger.

Plots On The Show

The series spans two storylines, following Ride and the Class of ’78 through recruitment, training, and the personal and professional highs and lows of the shuttle era, culminating in Ride’s historic spaceflight. It then picks up with the Rogers Commission investigation, as members interrogated NASA’s inner workings to determine what, and who, was responsible for the Challenger’s destruction.

Ride’s personal life will also factor into the narrative. She kept her 27-year relationship with tennis player Tam O’Shaughnessy private throughout her lifetime; only her 2012 obituary revealed it. 

Producers

Maggie Cohn, whose credits include American Crime Story and The Staircase, created the series and serves as showrunner. James Hawes, director of the acclaimed spy series Slow Horses, will helm the production.

The production team has expressed hope to time the series’ premiere near the anniversary of the Challenger disaster — January 28 — though no release date has been set. The Challenger will stream on Prime Video.