| The Challenger began breaking apart 73.213 seconds after launch. This photograph was taken 76.061 seconds after launch, 2.848 seconds after the breakup started. |
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The image to the left is a closeup view of the objects that can be seen exiting the vapor cloud beneath the SRB contrail in the photograph above. The third object from the top, trailing thick vapor, is the crew cabin; just above it is the severed nose section. At the moment of breakup Challenger was traveling at 2,900 feet per second, or 1,977 miles per hour, at an altitude of nine nautical miles. In the 2.848 seconds between the beginning of the breakup and the moment this photograph was taken, the crew cabin had shot up an addtional one-and-a-half miles, briefly subjecting the crew to a force twelve times that of gravity as the cabin tumbled violently upward. The vapor trailing from the cabin would dissipate in the next few moments, showing that the cabin itself was not burning. Contrary to initial reports, there was no actual explosion of the shuttle; what appeared to be a fireball was actually a combination of burning and vaporizing gases, reflected sunlight and SRB plume radiance as the external tank broke apart and released its liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel in the thin upper atmosphere. |
