Surviving an O-ring failure

[Moonwalker]

I know all the photos, videos and possible aspects. But actually it's still hypothetical what really happened to the crew. We won't never really know. Maybe I'm totally wrong but I just can't imagine that they really stayed conscious.

By the way, does anybody know about the parachute which was filmed shortly after the accident? Or was it just a cloud? I never saw it before (at 03:58):

[ame="http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=YAzA6k-spnc&feature=related"]YouTube - "GOD, NO!" Space Shuttle Challenger explosion Tv van no 2[/ame]

 

[DaveS]

By the way, does anybody know about the parachute which was filmed shortly after the accident? Or was it just a cloud? I never saw it before (at 03:58):

It was determined to be a SRB drogue-chute.

 

[Moonwalker]

It was determined to be a SRB drogue-chute.

Ah, I already was thinking about it.

 

[Urwumpe]

By the way, does anybody know about the parachute which was filmed shortly after the accident? Or was it just a cloud? I never saw it before (at 03:58):

What has parachutes on a shuttle?

In this case, it was the parachute of one of the SRBs, which got deployed in the disintegration.

 

[redrover]

(Who wouldn't love to have one of those?)

http://www.countdowncreations.com/ssuitacesdlx.htm

This is about as close as the average space nut will get.:lol:

 

[Kyle]

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=u0V-ZRNzMWc

It shows the left wing and engines come away also.

 

[Pilot7893]

This is kinda off topic. My mom's friend thinks the crew survived the explosion, survived the freefall, but drowned in the water. Seriously?

 

[Missioncmdr]

This is kinda off topic. My mom's friend thinks the crew survived the explosion, survived the freefall, but drowned in the water. Seriously?

No. The impact of the water would have definitely killed them.

 

[Chupacabra]

Your mom's friend sounds like one with a sense of humor. :rofl:

Oh topic...No, I kinda wish that the space program has another "Contest for Spaceflight" thing soon though. That seems like a great PR idea.

 

[James.Denholm]

To be honest, I thought that they died in the explosion up until I read this thread... Then again, I don't think to much about these things.

OFF TOPIC EDIT:

...Suit worn by NASA Astronauts for launch and reentry...

Since when could a suit survive re-entry? Now, a set of tracky-dacks, maybe, but a suit? I don't think so.

Seriously, it comes with a pen holder on the left arm! I didn't know that the astros had pen holders on their left arms. And, of course, this brings me back to a joke I heard once:
Because normal pens don't work in space (no gravity to pull the ink down onto the ball thing), the US and Soviet Russia had a bit of a problem with writing stuff down (pun not intended). So what did they do?
The US spent 11 million dollars developing the space pen.
The Russians bought pencils.

And then I went and read the Wikipedia article, and found that none of that's true.

 

[Brad]

To be honest, I thought that they died in the explosion up until I read this thread... Then again, I don't think to much about these things.

Well, no one "really" knows. They could of survived, and the probably is likely, but unless you where there you really don't know.

 

[pattersoncr]

To be honest, I thought that they died in the explosion up until I read this thread... Then again, I don't think to much about these things.

The explosion didn't destroy the orbiter. It was ripped apart by aerodynamic forces after the external tank exploded. This and the fact that some of the astronauts turned on their emergency O2 supply indicates that at least some of them survived the explosion.

 

[Brad]

I was hearing that there was suppose to be a movie about this released. The last I heard about it was here: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19931

 

[James.Denholm]

Only Holywood can turn a 70 second incident into a one-to-two-hour movie.

 

[Piper]

Since we know (within a reasonable degree of doubt) that some of the astronauts survived the Challenger explosion, I do think that at least those astronauts who stayed conscious might have survived the explosion and parachuted to the ground if they had the current equipment given to astronauts. It is important to note that there have been causes where pilots have survived their aircraft breaking up due to aerodynamic forces (like some of the Challenger astronauts), and managed to parachute to the ground. Bomber pilots during WWII occasionally where able to make their way out of their airplanes even after the wings had been torn off and the aircraft was falling chaotically and out of control, often coming out through the spots where the aircraft had been torn in two. With the length of time the shuttle was in the air after the explosion, I think its is possible that at least a couple of the astronauts would have been able to do the same. Of course, any astronauts who were knocked unconscious would most likely have died anyways.

 

[Andy44]

It is remotely possible that someone may have gotten out and parachuted with current equipment, but unlikely. The scenario would be something like this:

After the breakup, some of the 7 may be unconsious or expired from the high accelerations and flying debris. As Urwumpe stated, the forces may have been enough for components to break loose from the control panels become projectiles. But we know that at least some of them were still concious for a short time after the breakup. With modern pressure suits, those people would likely stay conscious, and perhaps have time to think about bailing out.

They have suits and parachutes, but can they get out? Not if the module is tumbling. Even if the windows are blown out, they are too small. If you can't get out of your seat, down to the mid-deck, and out that side hatchway, you're finished. However, the module is seen in the above photo trailing some stuff behind it, likely some cabling, plumbing, etc. There is a chance this may act like a kite tail and cause the module to settle into a nose-first attitude. If this is the case, and if there is no spinning about the roll axis, maybe somebody in the mid deck could be able to get out.

It's not completely impossible, but it's very, very long shot and depends on a lot of ifs. Without a dedicated ejection system of some sort you simply cannot have any expectation to survive such a catostrophic and violent event. Way too many ifs and maybes.

 

[Quick_Nick]

I could be wrong, but I don't believe the shuttles have ever had oxygen accompanying the ejection system. If you bail out as such a high altitude, you will surely lose consciousness from the lack of oxygen and maybe even die or at least suffer some injury if it takes long enough to get to the ground.(I think you'd have to deploy the chute at a high altitude or if you wait to get lower you'll be going too fast to deploy the chute safely) I'm not too familiar with the system, so maybe it does include oxygen and even a small drouge for slowing decent slightly from such high altitudes.

 

[Urwumpe]

Only Holywood can turn a 70 second incident into a one-to-two-hour movie.

They concentrate on the investigation... which was quite lengthy.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe the shuttles have ever had oxygen accompanying the ejection system. If you bail out as such a high altitude, you will surely lose consciousness from the lack of oxygen and maybe even die or at least suffer some injury if it takes long enough to get to the ground.(I think you'd have to deploy the chute at a high altitude or if you wait to get lower you'll be going too fast to deploy the chute safely) I'm not too familiar with the system, so maybe it does include oxygen and even a small drouge for slowing decent slightly from such high altitudes.

The shuttle did not allow bailing out at relative high altitudes before Challenger - the pole assisting in not hitting the wing was also not installed until that event. Also they did not expect a rapid loss of pressure in the cabin.

Their calculation was: The Shuttle is so safe, when something goes wrong, it can return home before it runs out of pressure. Challenger proved this attitude wrong.

 

[James.Denholm]

They concentrate on the investigation... which was quite lengthy.

Oops. How did I forget that? :sorry:

 

[Moonwalker]

Actually neither the Shuttle nor the ET really 'exploded' as it is often written.

The liquid hydrogen & oxygen of the ET deflagrated rather fast (as well as the monomethylhydrazine of the RCS). The ET disintegrated and the Shuttle just broke up caused by aerodynmic effects after an attitude change.

@ Urwumpe

Of course I know there are three parachutes (actually 7) on the STS all in all. I just didn't expect that the SRB's parachute would still deploy after the destruction of the SRB's. I never saw the accident video which I posted above.

Anyway I still can't believe the crew was conscious during free fall, and even more stayed in their seats or even cabin. The videos and photos just show something which looks like the front part, but I can't really see that it was 100% intact with the crew in it and alive

By the way, does anybody know if there was any intention to try to find parts of the cabin?