Science Channel has tapped an Oscar-winning actor to star in a TV movie about the 1986 Challenger explosion, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed.

William Hurt will play the renowned U.S. physicist Richard Feynman in the project, the story reports. The telepic, which is a co-production of the BBC and Science Channel, will be a factual drama looking at Feynman’s work unraveling the disaster, which was one of the biggest tragedies in U.S. spaceflight, the story notes.

After the space shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight on Jan. 28, 1986, a presidential commission asked Feynman to serve as an independent investigator, the story notes. The scientist was battling cancer at the time and died two years later.

Hurt won an Oscar in 1986 for his lead performance in “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

William Hurt