Originally Posted by mgburg

Read the same story this past evening...it does bring up some sad moments...

When Challenger went, I was watching the launch on a small B&W 5" screen in Master Control of the first TV station I worked for...the second it started to blow up I knew something was way too wrong then...I ran into the News Area (we didn't really have a "News Office") and told our talent that something serious was happening with the shuttle launch and I didn't think it was too good...needless to say, damn...I was correct...

Then when the Columbia was coming back in...for some reason the Networks had it on that morning and I remember that I started thinking that "...this just sucks..." ... and the fact that the cameras kept rolling and following the pieces as they kept spreading further and further apart...all the while flaming and glowing...leaving a comet-tail trailing behind in the wake behind each piece...

Now, this...

You have to understand that it takes about 75Gs to kill (I'm not sure where I remember reading that...) so to think that as the shuttle cabin is being ripped apart at 12,500mph, that the G-forces are anything under 3-figures is ridiculous...all I can say is that no one in that cabin had the slightest clue what hit them...IF they suffocated, they were unconscious when it happened...God would have made sure of that...