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Recovery Turns Grim as Remains of Some Victims Are Found
by jessica at 1:01 pm EST, Feb 3, 2003 |
] A gargantuan recovery effort turned increasingly grim
] today, as hundreds of officials, volunteers and
] homeowners combed the countryside of East Texas and
] western Louisiana, turning up remains of some of the
] astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia. This article brought me back to the question that's been nagging at me ever since I was eight and a half years old and I saw the Challenger explosion.. did they ever find remains from the crew of the Challenger? If anyone knows, or finds an article about that, please let me know. While on the subject, I remember years ago, having a conversation with a girl I worked with, we were talking about how our parents always told us the stories of where they were when numerous historical events took place (prime example: when they found out JFK was shot). We were saying how the only thing we could tell our kids is where we were/how we found out about the Challenger. A week after that conversation, Princess Diana died. I remember that, I remember when I found out that the Gulf War started, I remember Sept. 11, and now also the Columbia. I'm getting a bit tired of having things happen to tell my children about. But I guess that's part of growing up, and living history. I'm glad I was always curious about events around me, and I'm glad my mom made me watch all the coverage of the Challenger, and I'm glad she called me on Sept. 11 and told me to turn on the TV right after the first tower was hit, and I'm glad that ever since then, I put the news on first thing every morning. I'm glad I got up early on Saturday and saw everything. |
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RE: Recovery Turns Grim as Remains of Some Victims Are Found
by Lost at 5:23 pm EST, Feb 3, 2003 |
Given that the Challenger exploded with a nearly full fuel load, as it launched over the ocean, I think it is highly unlikely that any human parts survived the explosion in large enough chunks to be considered debris by the time they reached the water, where they would have sunk. BZZZZZ! Me wrong. |
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RE: Recovery Turns Grim as Remains of Some Victims Are Found
by Rattle at 6:32 pm EST, Feb 3, 2003 |
jessica wrote:
] This article brought me back to the question that's been
] nagging at me ever since I was eight and a half years old and
] I saw the Challenger explosion.. did they ever find remains
] from the crew of the Challenger? If anyone knows, or finds an
] article about that, please let me know. Yes, they found the remains of the Challenger crew. I don't remember all the details, so this may be incorrect. If I remember, it was kept quiet at the time because it was still in question if the crew was alive as the crew cabin module fell to the ocean. They did not want to upset people. I also think it was concluded that the crew was killed instantally by the concussion of the explosion. I'm not sure a straight answer has ever been given about that. Not that it matters too much.. For their sake, I hope it was an instant death. In this case, I have a feeling these poor astronauts had about 10 - 20 seconds to realise something was very wrong before a very very quick death. This is indicated by the last words over the comm channel in response to Huston inquiring about the temperature warning in the left wing wheel well.. "Roger, uhh..." [boom] What would you say if you were seeing feedback in your console that indicated the most serious of reentry problems? If it was me, it would have been "Oh shit!", but I have a feeling that NASA trains astronauts not to do that. |
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RE: Recovery Turns Grim as Remains of Some Victims Are Found
by logickal at 10:03 pm EST, Feb 3, 2003 |
Re: Challenger Crew Remains I'm not going to post the full text, but the report made by Joe Kerwin (physician as well as astronaut who flew on the first mission to Skylab in 1973) regarding the condition of the crew of Challenger can be found at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/kerwin.html In regards to the Columbia crew being aware of any problem: During this phase of flight, the crew are monitoring enough systems that they could have been aware that there something amiss, but almost certainly not to the extent that it would have appeared to be a potentially catastrophic anomaly. As evidenced by the air to ground, the crew did receive some indication that there were Caution and Warning system events associated with the loss of data from the sensors we are hearing about. However, you have to realize that the C&W messages the crew was receiving were not of a nature to suggest that the vehicle was in any immediate danger. Speculating, I believe that CDR Husband was begining to describe the sequence of C&W messages the crew was observing when signal was lost. That is how the crew are trained to perform - for another example, listen to the air to ground from CDR Eileen Collins during the early stages of ascent on STS-93 at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov./gallery/video/shuttle/sts-93/html/fd1.html |
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