expc66@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ulf Dahlen) (08/03/90)
I don't want to get into any `horrible' details, but how did the crew aboard Challenger die? Was the `cockpit' intact after the explosion? When was it found? How much of the wreckage was found? Where all bodies found? (This was probably discussed on the net back in 1986, so I'm sorry to raise it again, but I hadn't access to news then, so...) --Ulf Dahlen Linkoping University, Sweden and Edinburgh University, Scotland Internet: uda@ida.liu.se
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (08/04/90)
In article <5507@castle.ed.ac.uk> expc66@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ulf Dahlen) writes: >I don't want to get into any `horrible' details, but how did the crew >aboard Challenger die? Was the `cockpit' intact after the explosion? >When was it found? How much of the wreckage was found? Where all bodies >found? The cabin was more or less intact after the orbiter broke up and the fuel from the ET burned; there was no "explosion" in the precise sense of the word. The astronauts almost certainly were all alive at this point. Some of them definitely were, as some of the emergency air packs had been turned on, and noticeable amounts of air from them had been used. However, those packs were meant for escape from pad accidents, and contained *air*, not *oxygen*... and the cabin reached 80,000ft before it started to fall. It was not possible to determine for sure whether the cabin held pressure, but it seems unlikely. Assuming it lost pressure, the astronauts would have lost consciousness quickly, and would not have recovered by the time the cabin hit the ocean. The ocean impact killed them all instantly, and badly crushed the cabin. (Ref: the medical/forensic report from Joe Kerwin's team, reprinted in World Spaceflight News.) The remains of the astronauts were found, in the cabin, after several weeks underwater (hence "remains", not "bodies"). NASA refuses to discuss details. -- The 486 is to a modern CPU as a Jules | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology Verne reprint is to a modern SF novel. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry