# The Challenger crew was alive until they hit the water. Did you know that? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 1, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153 "2010-07-01T03:10:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/1 "2010-07-01T03:10:18Z")
> [@](#): > > **You were part of the team that investigated the Challenger accident. Were you satisfied with how that investigation was handled?** > > Overall I didn’t have big problems with it. But one thing that was deliberately buried was what happened to the crew. I did that part of the investigation, and there was tremendous political pressure not to tell anyone what happened—not even the other people in the crew office. They didn’t learn for months, which was totally inappropriate. They wouldn’t even let us put in checklists about what to do in the case of a breakup similar to Challenger. There’s ways you could probably survive it, but politically we weren’t allowed to discuss that for years, which to me is total hogwash. There are still many people that don’t understand that the crew of the Challenger didn’t die until they hit the water. They were all strapped into their seats in a basically intact crew module; their hearts were still beating when they hit the water. People think they were blown to smithereens, but that’s not what happened. And the problem with that is the same one we were talking about with regard to medicine: if you don’t learn what you can from a tragedy, you can’t mitigate that risk in the future. [http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/thewrongstuff/archive/2010/06/28/risky-business-james-bagian-nasa-astronaut-turned-patient-safety-expert-on-being-wrong.aspx](http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/thewrongstuff/archive/2010/06/28/risky-business-james-bagian-nasa-astronaut-turned-patient-safety-expert-on-being-wrong.aspx) I actually had no idea. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/2 "2010-07-01T03:14:36Z")
Yes, this is common knowledge - the emergency oxygen was found turned on. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/3 "2010-07-01T03:23:34Z")
I am almost sure Cecil did a column on this very topic… ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/4 "2010-07-01T03:28:52Z")
Learned this from Cecil’s column. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/5 "2010-07-01T04:10:05Z")
I always thought it was an urban legend. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/6 "2010-07-01T04:30:19Z")
Cecil’s [1995 article](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/954/did-the-astronauts-survive-the-challenger-explosion-long-enough-to-realize-their-plight) on the matter. Odds are they didn’t survive until impact on earth. But no one will ever know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/7 "2010-07-01T04:34:42Z")
OK. Tell me how someone knows “their hearts were still beating when they hit the water.” ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/8 "2010-07-01T04:42:41Z")
While the breakup forces were not significant enough to kill them, they would almost certainly have passed out due to hypoxia at that altitude due to the mixed-gas air supply and partial pressure. I’ve been to the altitude chamber several times in the course of my military career, and I can tell you with certainty that it doesn’t take long at all at 25,000 feet to become hypoxic. They were much higher, and as such I have no trouble believing that they were alive but unconscious when they hit the water. At least, I hope so. NASA would probably know. The crew compartment was more or less intact when they found it, even though the occupants were not. I’m sure they were autopsied afterwards. Wow. Morbid subject. In a lot of ways. I was all of 10 years old and it still makes me sad all these years later. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/9 "2010-07-01T04:45:44Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > OK. Tell me how someone knows “their hearts were still beating when they hit the water.” Telemetry from heart monitoring equipment? They were probably alive but not concious. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/10 "2010-07-01T04:58:37Z")
> [@](#): > > And the problem with that is the same one we were talking about with regard to medicine: if you don’t learn what you can from a tragedy, you can’t mitigate that risk in the future. Quite frankly, the chances I was going to be called upon to design the next generation of space shuttles were never that great. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/11 "2010-07-01T05:03:24Z")
I remember the news articles at the time reporting that some but not all of the oxygen packs had been activated and used for long enough to indicate that at least a few astronauts were likely alive when they hit the water; I also remember around the same time seeing the footage of the moment of explosion slowed down and a chunk of falling shuttle being highlighted and being pointed out as the cabin, virtually whole. I was 13 and I remember it as big news, because it took a while to figure out what exactly had failed and caused the explosion. The accident seemed to remain very much on the surface of public consciousness for an extended amount of time, and any new developments were front page news. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/12 "2010-07-01T05:36:26Z")
Yes. Among other things, I remember seeing a tabloid carrying what was supposedly a recording of the last moments on board during seafall, withheld from the public (for obvious reasons, whether real or not). ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/13 "2010-07-01T16:05:30Z")
Went to school with one of the crew, so this was a bigger deal for me. I was also stuck in Germany, starved for news I could read in English. At the time, I recall a Paris Match article containing much more info than the English language reports I could get. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/14 "2010-07-01T16:29:23Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > I also remember around the same time seeing the footage of the moment of explosion slowed down and a chunk of falling shuttle being highlighted and being pointed out as the cabin, virtually whole. This. I was 22 at the time and working at a research lab full of physicists and engineers. The consensus was that the crew survived the blast. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/15 "2010-07-01T17:12:48Z")
I was living in Huntsville, AL when this happened–hell, my mom worked for Thiokol, later, and I went to Challenger Middle School–so I’ve always paid a lot of attention to news about it. I heard this years ago, but at the time they did keep it very, very quiet. It’s odd to me how much less of a media event the Columbia was. Partly, I am sure, that’s a matter of my perspective, but some of it is really just a shift in the times, I think. Challenger was treated as a national tragedy: Columbia was an accident, and a personal tragedy for those directly involved. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/16 "2010-07-01T17:17:12Z")
Videotape. Challenger was live on television when it went up with a huge photogenic fireball. Columbia was a few white lines in the sky. ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/17 "2010-07-01T17:49:41Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Yes. Among other things, I remember seeing a tabloid carrying what was supposedly a recording of the last moments on board during seafall, withheld from the public (for obvious reasons, whether real or not). You’re most likely thinking of the one from the Weekly World News that has been reprinted many places around the web. It reads more like it was written by an aspiring comic book writer than anything: > **[FACT CHECK: Are These the Final Words of the Challenger Crew?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/challenger-crew-tape/)** > > Tabloid news reported a secret tape recorded aboard the doomed space shuttle Challenger captured the final panic-stricken moments of the crew. ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/18 "2010-07-01T21:51:42Z")
Just to make things a little more morbid around here… In Cecil’s article he says that NASA preempted local officials’ efforts to perform autopsies, but then later in the article says that the cabin and crew were “pulverized.” If the crew was pulverized, what was left to do an autopsy on? ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/19 "2010-07-01T22:53:14Z")
I think the Challenger was a bigger media event because there had been so much publicity hype about Christa McAuliffe going up on that flight. She and the mission were much in the news in the days before the launch. I heard only a few years ago that the crew almost certainly survived the explosion. I was shocked to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153/20 "2010-07-01T23:04:49Z")
I remember my 7th grade science teacher talked to the class about the Challenger accident and told us that they weren’t killed in the initial explosion. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-challenger-crew-was-alive-until-they-hit-the-water-did-you-know-that/545153.md?page=2)