This page will be dedicated to the events superseding the explosion of the Challenger.

At Mission Control

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At T+68, Mission Control in Houston, Texas received the last communication transmission from the Challenger. There was a puff of static over the radio as the Shuttle began to disintegrate. Unbeknownst to the flight controllers, by T+75, the entire vehicle had already broke up. Being over 1400 km away from the launch site, Mission Control was simultaneously confused and anxious. 14 seconds later, a flight dynamics officer reported the radar reading odd patterns. It was another minute before they finally confirmed the loss of down-link. By then, the two SRBs had flown out of the debris cloud and the cabin of the Challenger, with the crew inside, was tumbling from the sky. The mission's Range Safety Officer (RSO) quickly took action and sent self-detonation signals to the SRBs to prevent them from causing damage when they fall to the ground.



The Mission Control watched their television screens in shock as Flight Director Jay Greene orders an emergency protocol over the premise. They locked all doors and cut communications with the outside world until all the important data could be acquired and filed.

Following the disintegration and explosion of the main vehicle, the crew cabin detached itself from the rest of the shuttle, completely intact. Almost certainly, a number of astronauts on board were still alive at this stage; however the quick acceleration, immense G force and depressurized atmosphere meant that most of them would have went unconscious within the first few seconds of this experience. The force from the fall itself would have been insufficient to cause any major injuries, so it is unlikely that they perished from this issue. However the great force exerted when the cabin impacted with the ground would have been tremendous as it was descending at over 333 km/h. The most likely explanation of the crew's deaths would be from this rapid deceleration.

The Fall