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An NYT Book Review of Higginbotham's new book Challenger mentioned that astronaut Smith "had survived the entire journey, counting down the seconds to certain death" (6/9/2024). I was curious how exactly that was determined and what it meant. Reading the Talk here about this page's section, I was thankful for @HandThatFeeds's reminder about reliable and valid sources, and to @NekoKatsun considered takes.
Your posts prompted me to dig in, and go to Higginbotham's book itself. While it's not a primary source but secondary, there's a helpful finding there.
"The volume of air remaining in Smith’s pack also revealed that someone had been breathing from the supply for around two and a half minutes: almost exactly the length of time it took for the sundered crew cabin to fall the twelve miles from its apogee to the surface of the Atlantic."(p. 439)
Higginbotham, Adam. Challenger : A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Simon & Schuster, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/northeastern-ebooks/detail.action?docID=30789142.
Created from northeastern-ebooks on 2024-07-21 00:20:28.
So while Slade's statement may go too far (inferring whether Smith was literally counting down seconds seems not supported), I do wonder if it would answer public curiosity to add a sentence or two, and even borrow from Slade's review. Something like this maybe:
"Recorded audio captured from a painstakingly reconstructed magnetic tape of the shuttle’s black box revealed that at least one astronaut, Mike Smith, had survived the entire journey," as Rachel Slade described 6/9/2024. The book reviewed by Slade, Challenger by Adam Higginbotham, explained, "The volume of air remaining in Smith’s pack also revealed that someone had been breathing from the supply for around two and a half minutes: almost exactly the length of time it took for the sundered crew cabin to fall the twelve miles from its apogee to the surface of the Atlantic." (p. 439). http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/northeastern-ebooks/detail.action?docID=30789142
Out of respect for more experienced Wikipedia editors I figured I'd ask first in Talk rather than boldly make the edit without first checking. Also I apologize I'm unfamiliar with the conventions for citation and wonder if anyone can help get that right too. Roben Torosyan, Ph.D. (talk) 00:48, 21 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The current article does mention that Smith's PEAP was activated (as were the PEAPs for two other crewmembers, although we don't know who), that Resnik or Onizuka likely activated it for him and that their remaining unused air was "consistent with the expected consumption during the post-breakup trajectory." This is sourced to Mike Mullane's "Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut". Reading the relevant chunk of the book (pp.245-249), the established information is that:
Onizuka and/or Resnik was conscious and functional immediately following breakup (because one of them turned on Smith's PEAP),
Smith was conscious and functional immediately following breakup (because some of his switches had been manually toggled), and
Smith was alive until impact (because his air volume matched the expected consumption of someone breathing it for the descent).
I don't have a copy of Higginbotham's book, but I'm very curious to know if the audio mentioned is new information. My understanding is that at the altitude the break-up was that, if the cabin lost pressure, the crew would have rapidly lost consciousness, but if the pressure held, the crew would have been able to remain active the whole time. My understanding is also that both of those "if"s are basically unknowable due to the damage the capsule suffered on impact (we know there was no floor buckling, so no explosive decompression, but we don't know about gradual).
Do you have a copy of the book? The one at my library is checked out (though I've placed a request for it). Man, now I'm really curious! NekoKatsun (nyaa) 15:34, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
level-5 vital article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
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