The crew members were commander Francis Scobee, pilot Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis and teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first "ordinary" person in space. NASA's Hugh Harris said the divers were not able to determine how many of the bodies are in the wreckage.Ĭhallenger exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven aboard. Pathologists from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology have flown to Patrick Air Force Base near the cape, where they will assist in identifying the remains, officials said. The compartment was believed to have been located about 15 miles east of the cape, although NASA would not give an exact location and said that "local security measures are being taken to assure that recovery operations can take place in a safe and orderly manner." Because of six-foot waves, no recovery operations were possible today.īurnette said that the Preserver returned to port Saturday night, but said she could not comment on whether it carried any crew cabin debris or remains. "We're talking debris, and not a crew compartment, and we're talking remains, not bodies," she said.īecause of stiff winds and ocean currents, it "may take several days" to complete the recovery off the Florida coast, NASA officials said. Deborah Burnette, said that neither the crew compartment nor the bodies were intact. In deference to the families, the agency said it will release no further details until the recovery is completed and the remains are identified. The families of the seven crew members were notified of the discovery over the weekend. "Subsequent dives provided positive identification of the Challenger crew compartment debris and the existence of crew remains," the National Aeronautics and Space Administration statement said. On Saturday, another group of divers from the USS Preserver, who the space agency said were "thoroughly briefed on debris identification," began to search the area. Navy divers have located wreckage of the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger lying on the ocean bottom in 100 feet of water and confirmed that it contains remains of the astronauts killed nearly six weeks ago, NASA said today.ĭivers, aided by sonar, made a "possible" identification of the crew cabin late Friday afternoon.
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