Why did the Challenger Explode?

What caused this great ship to explode moments after

liftoff?
January 28, 1986
It was a cold day in Florida, in the low thirties and
dropping. On the observation deck, were cameras and
news crews, family members of the crew and a third grade
class. Most other people were watching at home on their
televisions; even schools were watching. As the shuttle
lifted off into the sky everyone cheered. Until, the shuttle
disappeared into a puft of white smoke. The smiles all
over the nation froze and transformed into shock. The
question on everyones mind, what caused the challenger
to explode?
The challenger explosion was caused by a
malfunction of the O-rings. O-rings are rubber rings that
seal sections of the SRBs ( solid rocket boosters )
together. Due to the freezing temperatures that day the
O-rings became stiff and did not hold their seal, causing
rocket fuel to blow through. When this happens it is called
a blowby. Blowbys had occurred before but the secondary
o-rings always held and nothing had happened. This time
however, the leak had caused an explosion.
At liftoff, the O-rings had grown stiff and some rocket
fuel had blown through causing small black puffs of smoke
to be visible from the side of the rocket. Thankfully, the
burn produced a chemical residue which resealed the joint
temporarily to the point where the pressure was contained.
But, it was very windy that day and about a minute after
liftoff the residue gave way. A small flame then shoots
past the secondary o-ring and out of the SRB; the flame
swelled as it entered the splitstream towards the external
fuel tank. It burned through the tanks insulation then
through the tank itself causing it to catch fire. The orbiter
broke apart and the crew cabin descended, hitting the
water at two hundred miles per hour killing everyone
inside. The most disturbing part; most all of the engineers
had recommended that the shuttle not launch in fear that
this would happen. But NASA didnt listen.