One of the things that I find surprising is the amount of time between when the breakup started ("8:53:46 (EI+577): Various people on the ground saw signs of debris being shed. ... Dialogue on some of the amateur footage indicates the observers were aware of the abnormality of what they were filming.") to last radio contact (nearly 6 minutes later).
And on takeoff, the Challenger crew compartment was still intact after the explosion and the crew was protected and quite likely conscious for the 2 minutes and 45 seconds while it hurtled along in a ballistic arc until it splashed down into the ocean hard enough to pulverize everything on board.
Yeah. A similar thing happened during Columbia; the cabin remained somewhat intact for up to 39 seconds after the rest of the vehicle really started to fall apart, though it ultimately disintegrated with the rest of the orbiter.
It seems those crew compartments were pretty damn tough.
One of the things that I find surprising is the amount of time between when the breakup started ("8:53:46 (EI+577): Various people on the ground saw signs of debris being shed. ... Dialogue on some of the amateur footage indicates the observers were aware of the abnormality of what they were filming.") to last radio contact (nearly 6 minutes later).