Wondering about the astronauts final moments...

[Qwikshot]

What were the final moments like?


Jon Snyder / Daily News graphic




What's it like to fly at 12,000 mph, 39 miles high, at 3,000 degrees?

No one has ever died before under such extreme conditions.

The Columbia was moving at 12,500 miles per hour - 16 times the speed of sound.

It was gliding at 200,000 feet - about four times higher than the Concorde's cruising altitude.

The outside temperature was about 135 degrees below zero - cold enough to freeze the mercury in your thermometer.

At lower elevations, there's a chance of momentary survival.

In airline explosions at 25,000 feet, for example, some airline passengers likely survive the initial blast, experts believe. Initially, the victims pass out due to lack of oxygen. But as they fall to 15,000 feet, they may re-awaken, only to find themselves strapped into a plummeting airline seat.

Higher up, the calamity is unimaginable.

Atmospheric pressure is almost negligible. Once the craft's hull is breached, it would explode in an instant, ripping everything apart.

If the astronaut was still conscious after the initial burst, he would hear nothing, because sound doesn't travel in a vacuum.

A space suit might protect him from the cold. But unless it was properly pressurized, his blood would boil and his lungs would blow up.

In 1959, when jet pilot Lt. Col. William H. Rankin was forced to bail out of his F8U Crusader jet at 50,000 feet in summer-weight flight clothes, he said his body became "a freezing, expanding mass of pain."

If an astronaut were to survive all that, he'd pray he'd be spared the fall to earth.

Sky-divers with failed parachutists have been known to survive a fall at up to 120 mph. But the astronauts were plummeting far faster.

In 1960, Col. Joseph W. Kittinger Jr. set the high-altitude parachute jump world record at 102,800 feet. Before he pulled his chute at 18,000 feet, he reached an estimated 614 mph - just under the speed of sound.

At 200,000 feet, an astronaut would drop even faster - maybe 1,100 miles an hour, before slowing somewhat in the lower atmosphere.

At that speed, the end would come in a matter of 3 or 4 minutes.

- Don Russell

[MylesKnight]

Jesus!

[sachmo71]

It was with morbid curiousity that I peeked at this thread. I wish I hadn't.

[dacman]

At the altitude and speed the shuttle was travelling, the astronauts' deaths would have been nearly instantaneous.

[HornedFrog Purple]

The astronauts did not suffer. Remember the outside temperature was in the neighborhood of 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Even if they were catapulted out of the shuttle from the initial explosion, they would have been exposed to these elements without any protection which would have resulted in spontaneous combustion.

I have seen remains in the range of 1500 Fahrenheit. It is quick and painless, there is not even time for awareness. It is instant, they honestly did not know what hit them.

[JeeberD]

Originally posted by HornedFrog Purple
It is instant, they honestly did not know what hit them.

God, I certainly hope not.

[mrskippy]

It certainly sounds as they may have been having trouble though. Reports are the cabin was already heating up prior to Houston losing contact.

But I hope they didn't suffer. Likely once the Shuttle broke apart, they died instantly.

Ilan Ramon said he didn't want to come back and he didn't. And Bush was right on in his speech about the astronauts truly being "home."

My dad also talked about how when they died, their souls were that much closer to Heaven.

On a morbid know, I've been horrified to hear about how they've located human remains. Seven astronauts spread over 15 counties. One boy found a burned portion of a leg. A helmet found elsewhere. A charred patch in another place.

I pray they didn't suffer. I pray their souls were gently lifted the rest of the way into the Heavens.

[cthomer5000]

to me the scarier thing was the at least 2-3 minutes where they realized they were having some trouble. I can only imagine what was racing through their minds as they assumed the worst before the worst actually happened.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I think they may have suffered ,ut for a brief moment of time ....probably a minute or so before oblivion .
Knowing that they were probably not gonna make it well thats another question since everything seemed fine till the very end .
At a fall from that high and at the rate of speed the body would have exploded and burned during the flight down .
I believe the human body without a pressurized suit will break apart at around 150 mph .

[JeeberD]

Sounds like the shuttle could have been in trouble before ithit Texas. I've heard from friends in El Paso (extreme west Texas)that on the news it's been reported that some locals have claimed to finding some shuttle debris. I was skeptical about that, but then found this article this morning.


"Meanwhile, a newly surfaced video shows the doomed shuttle over California, with what appear to be pieces falling off of it as it re-enters the atmosphere. This could indicate that Columbia was already in trouble well westward of Dallas, Texas, where its final disintegration occurred Saturday."

Shuttle over California

[ctmason]

Some expert on FoxNews actually spoke to a claim made by people in Hawaii and California about seeing possible debris. He claimed it was quite common to see what might look like debris flying off the shuttle, even maybe multiple pieces, but that it was a function of the speed of the shuttle, and there would be slight visual differences from what we saw over Texas.

Sorry I can't explain that better, but that was the gist.