[OneLoyalAmerican]

It is my understanding the crew compartment, a pressure vessel within the air frame, survived the Challenger explosion. I'm not sure about impact details.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"It is my understanding the crew compartment, a pressure vessel within the air frame, survived the Challenger explosion. I'm not sure about impact details."

As I recently posted in another thread, I spoke last spring on a cruise vacation with a gentleman who was a high official at NASA through Apollo, who had listened to the Challenger voice tapes. The crew survived until impact with the water.

(And as I am an avid student of the space program, and have read most of what has been written, I am certain that the gentleman, who was fighting cancer at the time, was telling the truth, based on our extensive and wide ranging discussion of many other aspects of the program.)

[bonesmccoy]

You are correct.
The crew module of Challenger emerged from the fireball intact. I was attempting to find the photo on the internet, but can not locate it right now.