[The South Park Republican]

A quick search for the Challenger Transcript will give you enough information to question the official NASA line. NASA's tape indeed ended with the explosion, but McAuliffe's personal recorder kept working until the end.

All I remember is reading one small report a couple of years after the tragedy. This report detailed how swithces were thrown and buttons pushed when they finially found the shuttle at the bottom of the ocean. Obviously this could have only happened AFTER the explosion.

I remember being amazed at how little attention this got. I remember speaking to a friend about it and he said maybe it's to respect the family of the dead.

Odd and interesting....

[RummyChick]

I wondered how long it was going to take for the rats to imply that Bush has purposely caused this tragedy

[bonesmccoy]

That is absolute BS.
The cockpit was in pieces from 51-L.
There was no way a "switch" could have been thrown in the context of the Challenger recovery program and to allege that impropriety exists in the manner of the recovery is outrageous.

[Alberta's Child]

At least three of the Challenger crew members were conscious after the initial explosion of the fuel tank. The crew cabin was intact after the explosion, and was intact all the way down to the water.

For reference purposes, the Columbia appears to have disintigrated at an altitude of 200,000 feet or so. The Challenger broke up at 48,000 feet, and the crew cabin reached a maximum altitude of 65,000 feet or so before it came back down.

The stories about the surviving voice recorder on the Challenger may have been true, but the "transcripts" you may have read on the internet have been debunked as an urban legend.

[lodwick]

I hope you linked to dep's newspaper article - the Challenger cover-up was a government classic: moving the bodies in garbage cans in the middle of the night; Presidential orders for no local guys to do the autopsies; off the wall death certificates.

It was more than enough to convince me that our astronauts died in the ocean and not in the sky as we'd all been told, and had hoped.