John Zarrella is an American news correspondent. He worked for CNN from 1981–2013. He was the principal correspondent for CNN's coverage of the U.S. space program, covering such events such as John Glenn’s 1998 return to space, the Mars Pathfinder mission and numerous space shuttle launches. Zarrella was the CNN network correspondent on site when the 1986 "Challenger" shuttle disaster occurred. In 2011, Zarrella covered the final flights of the Space Shuttle program.