Out of curiosity, why does it matter? The crew and passengers of most aviation disasters are typically alive up until the point where they impact the planet.
Because it’s nice to think that they all died instantaneously in an explosion. Instead they had a bit to squirm in agony as they rocketed towards the Earth.
It’s interesting because it was downplayed–something that I don’t think would happen today, with the internet: just too many avenues for annonymous morbid curiosity.
Three out of four air packs had been activated and the volume of air used was what would be expected if they were alive during the whole fall. Several covered switches on the pilot’s panel had been moved from launch position.
I remember hearing about at least one air pack in the weeks after, so I don’t think information was being withheld.
I don’t think very many people, outside of school-aged kids, watched the launch live.
This. The shuttle probably snap rolled hard enough to knock them out.
That’s already a significant number of people, before even comparing it to how many people saw Colombia live.
I expected it to be true from day one - It seemed to me, watching the tape of the explosion, that you can see the crew module blowing off intact.
I think I first learned of this from Cecil’s column, too.
I was a college student, volunteering as a news intern at an Ohio small-town radio station, on the day the Challenger went down. I had an odd combination of feelings: very sad about the crew’s deaths, of course, but also thrilled to be somewhere where I could learn about what had happened before the rest of the public. My colleagues and I were glued to the AP and CNN screens that day.
Well, I didn’t know it until this thread. I’m a bit taken aback by it.
I don’t think it’s really correct to say they rocketed towards earth. They rocketed away from earth, to be sure. Unfortunately they stopped rocketing way ahead of schedule.
*pause *
too soon?
anyway does that mean the parachute failed to deploy for some reason or another? i thought the crew modules come with a re-entry parachute?
No, AFAIK, the crew module was never intended to be an escape capsule that could be jettisoned from the rest of the shuttle.
**shijinn **you’re thinking of non-reusable spacecraft like the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury missions. The shuttle is designed to land as a glider and the crew compartment is every bit as removable as the cockpit of an airplane.
Bolding mine - the Challenger didn’t exactly explode. It disintegrated due to aerodynamic forces. The breakup did cause the remaining liquid fuel to ignite, but that’s not “exploding”.
The venting from the faulty solid rocket booster caused the whole stack to twist in the supersonic airflow. This created aerodynamic forces sufficient for the joined structure to fail. It basically tumbled and got torn to pieces in a fraction of a second.
EvilTOJ . oh right, i was.
This. It’s not the fall that kills you. It’s the sudden stop.
But a LOT of school-aged kids watched the Challenger liftoff compared to others, thanks to the interested generated by Christa McAuliffe.
That’s a big reason why the Challenger still resonates so strongly-- your primary audience consisted of countless of the most impressionable people in America: children. Not many children sitting in class watch people die on live television, that sort of thing sticks with you.
I know it stuck with me, so many years later.
Interesting. I did not know that until this thread.