What happened when Challenger exploded?

Answer 1

Firstly, what happened to the Challenger to make it 'explode'? Well it was a very cold January and the mission had been delayed several times due to the weather. Eventually on January 28th 1986, the shuttle was ready to launch.

The freezing weather had caused an O-Ring (an object which seals part of the Solid Rocket Boosters) to fail. This was because it was too cold and the O-Ring could not seal in time.

The hot gases from inside the SRB began leaking out (after launch). These gases started hitting the side of the External Tank (orange cylindrical object). Eventually these gases began melting not only the side of the External Tank, but also the strut holding the SRB to the External Tank and the rest of the spacecraft.

At 73 seconds after lift-off, the strut holding the SRB failed and it pulled away from the spacecraft. The SRB then slammed into the External Tank which was starting to disintegrate due to the leak. The External Tank eventually disintegrated and Challenger fell away from the spacecraft and was instantly broken up by the abnormal aerodynamic forces.

The apparent 'explosion' was not an explosion, it was just a huge cloud of propellant gases from the External Tank. They were stored at cryogenic conditions (too cold to ignite).

When the spacecraft disintegrated, the two SRBs flew clear of the spacecraft and exited the cloud of gas. The External Tank had disintegrated fully and pieces of it were falling to Earth. Challenger had also disintegrated and pieces of that were falling also.

But the crew cabin (front piece of the Space Shuttle) remained intact and fell to the ocean at a nose-down attitude. There were four personal oxygen packs (PEAPs) on board and three of them were found to have been manually activated. This shows that at least three of the crew members were indeed alive following the original vehicle break-up.

Whether those crew members survived the next two and a half minute fall to the ocean is impossible to know. But it is likely that the crew at least passed out before then. This is because the air in the PEAPs was not pressurized so it would have been consumed too rapidly and it is also unlikely that the crew cabin remained pressurized.

Therefore it is certain that at least some of the crew were alive following the explosion. It is likely but not certain that they passed out and died during their fall to the ocean. But it is certain that any surviving crew members were killed when the crew cabin smashed into the ocean surface at over 200mph.

When the remains of the crew cabin were found, the crew members' remains were buried. A memorial stands for them at Arlington Cemetery and at the Kennedy Space Center.

Space Shuttle Discovery flew the first flight after the disaster (''Return to Flight'') in September 1988.

Answer 2

The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch on January 28, 1986, due to the failure of an O-ring seal in one of its solid rocket boosters. All seven crew members onboard, including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher set to travel to space, tragically lost their lives. The disaster led to a temporary suspension of the Space Shuttle program and a thorough investigation into the causes of the accident.