The launch was pushed back by almost a week due to adverse weather conditions. What Caused the Explosion in the First Place? The investigation concluded that they could not determine whether a lack of oxygen caused any unconsciousness on the part of the astronauts and ultimately they could not determine the precise cause of death. The PEAPs that were activated belonged to Judith Resnik, mission specialist Ellison Onizuka, and pilot Michael J. He also reported that they recovered three PEAPs (personal egress air pack), which contained an emergency supply of oxygen, that had been activated, which indicated that at least three crew members were alive and conscious long enough to activate their PEAPs. The force of the crash would have far exceeded survivability levels, according to Kerwin. The letter also stated that the crew “possibly, but not certainly, lost consciousness in the seconds following Orbiter breakup due to in-flight loss of crew module pressure.”Īfter the explosion, the module rose for another 25 seconds due to its upward momentum, then it took 2 minutes, 45 seconds to fall into the ocean. Kerwin, the director of Space and Life Sciences at the Johnson Space Center, to NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Flight Richard H.

Separate the crew compartment from the forward fuselage, cargo bay, nose cone, and forward reaction control compartment,” according to a letter about the crash written from Joseph P. The astronauts were in a reinforced aluminum section of the shuttle and as such, the forces at the time of the explosion “were probably too low to cause death or serious injury to the crew but were sufficient to

Space shuttle challenger bodies autopsy