Beyonce Criticized For Using Audio From Challenger Disaster In Song ‘XO’

International pop diva Beyoncé is taking some criticism after audio from the Jan. 28, 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger was used in her new single ‘XO.’ The song features audio by retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbit from the moments after the Challenger exploded. “Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.” Nesbit makes that statement in the seconds following the Challenger Disaster. Now, 27 years after the explosion that killed seven people, Beyoncé has used Nesbit’s remarks in the opening of her song “XO.”

Both current and former NASA astronauts are calling Beyoncé insensitive for her choice to use the six-second audio in her song. The song was written and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash also known by the stage name The Dream. In a statement to ABC News Beyoncé said the song is about cherishing the ones you love and realizing “that unexpected things happen.” Beyoncé said songwriters “included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the challenger crew with the hope that they will never be forgotten.”

Family members of those killed in the Challenger explosion found the inclusion of the Nesbit audio distasteful and disrespectful. The widow of Challenger Commander Dick Scobee, June Scobee Rodgers issued a statement saying, “We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO.' The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today.”

A former NASA employee, Keith Cowing also issued a statement saying that including audio from the Challenger explosion in a song that has to do with “the trivial life event of a girl breaking up with her boyfriend…serves to mock the severity of the events and loss that these final words represent. The choice of historic and solemn audio is inappropriate in the extreme.” January 28, 2014 will mark the 28^th anniversary of the Challenger disaster where 73 seconds after takeoff, the Challenger exploded on national TV.