The Nation - News from Nov. 13, 1988

The space shuttle Challenger’s crew may have survived the explosion 72 seconds into flight and lived for the 2 1/2 minutes it took the craft to crash into the ocean, the Miami Herald’s Sunday magazine reported. The magazine, Tropic, quoted anonymous NASA investigators who said the seven crew members survived the blast on Jan. 28, 1986, and died only when the cabin slammed into the Atlantic at 200 m.p.h. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has maintained the crew members died the instant the spacecraft exploded. NASA officials declined to comment on the article.