Shuttle Cabin Was Intact on Sea Impact : Astronauts Believed Killed by Blast or Aerodynamic Forces

Challenger’s crew cabin hit the surface of the Atlantic intact inside the nose section of the space shuttle after the spacecraft blew apart on Jan. 28, a federal safety inspector reported today.

When the nose section “struck the water, it had some mass inside it; that mass was the crew module,” said Terry Armentrout, director of the National Transportation Safety Board’s bureau of accident investigation.

However, most experts do not believe the astronauts survived the nine-mile plunge to the ocean. They believe the seven probably were killed instantly from the shock of the explosion or from aerodynamic forces as the nose section and enclosed cabin tumbled from the sky.

Reporters View Debris

Armentrout talked with reporters as he led them through two hangars where the shuttle debris is laid out over a pattern of four-foot-square grids. It was the first public viewing of the wreckage.

Armentrout said Challenger broke apart more from aerodynamic forces and water impact than from the force of the explosion.

In fact, he said, there was no large explosion. He said the cloud of smoke and flame resulted more from the breaking up of the large external fuel tank and the fires that resulted when its liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant mixed and burned.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration called on the safety board the day after the accident to help it learn what caused the disaster by using its expertise in investigating aircraft accidents.

16% of Shuttle Recovered

An estimated 14% to 16% of the shuttle has been recovered. Some was found floating on the surface in the days after the accident; the rest has been retrieved from the ocean floor.

Wreckage of the orbiter itself is laid out in one hangar. Much of it is in small pieces, but there are large chunks of the right wing, of the payload bay doors and of the fuselage. There was a stench of dead marine life in the building from barnacles and other sea creatures that attached themselves to several chunks.

The debris of the external fuel tank, two of the three main engines and the forward sections of the two solid-fuel rocket boosters are laid out in a portable hangar. Most of the boosters are in a secure building because they still contain hazardous propellant.

Shuttle Thrown Free

Only the tail section of the orbiter shows evidence of flame damage, and Armentrout said this indicates the shuttle was thrown free of the fireball.

He said the nose section containing the crew cabin came away from the rest of the orbiter “with a clean break.”

Standing in front of sections of the nose section that have been assembled atop sawhorses, Armentrout said, “We don’t see any evidence of a burn up or a blow up. It either broke up aerodynamically or when it hit the water.”