Whatever happened, there was no chance of survival when the cabin struck the ocean at 207 miles per hour. For what it's worth, per NBC News, three-time shuttle commander Robert Overmeyer, who participated in the cabin's recovery, is certain that the Challenger astronauts were conscious. The crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger, with the remains of astronauts aboard, has been found 100 feet beneath the sea off the coast of Florida, NASA officials announced Sunday. However, Kerwin noted that the PEAPs may have been activated "instinctively" due to depressurization right at breakup, in which case they wouldn't have kept the astronauts awake, as they only provided regular air. Notable for sending the first civilian into space, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, the Challenger would take its crew of seven into orbit around the Earth. Of the four personal egress air packs, or PEAPs, that were recovered, three had been activated before the impact. The Challenger s launch on January 28, 1986, was supposed to be a celebratory event for NASA. There is one chilling indicator of the crew's fate. A History Channel documentary crew has discovered a piece of the space shuttle Challenger which broke apart after takeoff in 1986 on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, NASA announced Thursday. Given the damage, it couldn't be determined whether there'd been any breach in the cabin before the crash. The space shuttle Challenger was destroyed in an explosion 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986. Smith, mission commander Dick Scobee, and specialists Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik.The external fuel tank, containing tons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, was ruptured by a flare of hot gas from one of the two solid-propellant booster rockets, causing a breakup that. From the earliest days of the space program, it seemed logical that the goal of frequent, economical access to space might best be served by a reusable launch system. The other six killed were pilot Michael J. On the ocean floor, the cabin was a mangled mess, but that was due to its impact. The Space Shuttle concept had its genesis in the 1960s, when the Apollo lunar landing spacecraft was in full development but had not yet flown. If it did so right away, the astronauts would've been mercifully unaware of their descent after only a few seconds. The central question is how quickly the cabin depressurized. After the orbiter was torn apart, the sturdy crew cabin (pictured) began to free fall. Allan McDonald, who directed the booster rocket project at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol, urged delaying the launch of the space shuttle before it exploded in 1986.
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