Michelle Williams to feature as NASA astronaut Christa McAuliffe in space drama The Challenger

Michelle Williams is set to feature as astronaut Christa McAuliffe in The Challenger. The space drama centres on the 1986 incident when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members, including McAuliffe.

According to Variety , Martin Zandvliet is up for direction.

Jayson Rothwell is attached as scriptwriter while producers are John and Art Linson, and Ben Renzo from Argent Pictures.

The film is expected to go on floors in May.

McAuliffe was a high school teacher from New Hampshire who was selected to join NASA’s Teacher in Space Project, and had been planning to conduct experiments and teach lessons from the Space Shuttle Challenger.

She was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004.

Williams recently featured in All the Money in the World and I Feel Pretty , and will next be seen sharing screen space with Tom Hardy in Venom , which is set to hit the theatres on Friday, 5 October.

Williams has currently been filming for Bart Freundlich’s After the Wedding with Julianne Moore.

Williams has been nominated for the Oscars four times Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week With Marilyn, and Manchester by the Sea.

(With inputs from agencies)