NASA releases report on causes of death of Columbia astronauts

[fyrfitrmedic]

(floridatoday.com) - The Columbia astronauts survived for 45 seconds after their spaceship careened out of control during atmospheric reentry in 2003 but lost consciousness after their crew cabin depressurized 12 miles above Texas, a new NASA report shows.

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2008/12/nasa-columbia-crew-survived-short-time.shtml

This is out on the news wires, but the above contains a link to the actual report.

[DC]

One of the pilots remained concious for 20 some-odd seconds and was trying to correct the attitude of the orbiter.

At least it was quick, IIRC the astronauts on Challenger were not killed until the crew cabin hit the water, though I believe they were unconcious before that.

[JayT]

One of the pilots remained concious for 20 some-odd seconds and was trying to correct the attitude of the orbiter.

At least it was quick, IIRC the astronauts on Challenger were not killed until the crew cabin hit the water, though I believe they were unconcious before that.

There's some debate over that, how long the crew was still alive.

[SABRE17]

i heard one NASA spox say that 3 astronauts were able to turn on their back up o2 after challenger broke up

[DC]

i heard one NASA spox say that 3 astronauts were able to turn on their back up o2 after challenger broke up

Holy major thread necro...

[DakRadz]

i heard one NASA spox say that 3 astronauts were able to turn on their back up o2 after challenger broke up

Holy major thread necro...

I was thinking it was a little late to release a report on this...

Wow. Zombies have invaded. Prepare!

[/thread]

[CadetProgramGuy]

If you take a look at a recent copy of Popular Science thay talk about the Space Jump Project (http://tinyurl.com/yczm7p9).  In the article it also mentioned the deaths of the Columbia Crew.

One of the puzzling factors of the Autopsies was the large amount of broken bones.  Not shattered, but snapped bones.  What the article suggests is that the multiple shockwaves from the many pieces of the shuttle as it was breakign apart caused thousands of multi-mach shockwaves that contributed to the death of the astronauts.

In the Space Jump project they are concerned about Felix Baumgartner's (the jumper) and how his body will react to the shockwave forming around his head at mach 1, while his body is still below Mach 1 for that split second.

[SarDragon]

Haven't seen the article. Was there any mention of area rule in the Space Jump part?

[CadetProgramGuy]

Haven't seen the article. Was there any mention of area rule in the Space Jump part?

I will have to re-read the article, but I don't think so.