Could the Challenger astronauts have survived if the crew capsule was equipped with a parachute?

It is always a good idea in retrospect

The explosion did not kill them most definitely because there was no explosion. The exact cause of the seven astronauts deaths is unknown but it is now widely believed that they died when the crew cabin hit the water at 321 km per hr. A bail out system was built into the shuttle after the Challenger disaster but that would only work in very limited circumstances.

Probably not. It all happened too fast and there was no separate crew capsule.

It is very probable that any parachute would have been severely damaged by the explosion and been useless anyways. Especially in light of the fact that the resulting aerodynamic forces and the force of the explosion tore the shuttle apart.

Possibly; there's evidence that at least some of them survived the initial event. But unless the crew cabin was still watertight they might well have sunk before help could arrive.

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It definitely sounds theoretically plausible to do that.Maybe make it so apart of the inside is a parachute,as to make it so when it splits it will still have the same size and such.It should be.

i don't know, i guess you can always suggest some alternative design in retrospect after any such disaster, that might have allowed someone to survive, or not

but really i don't think the shuttle should have been made into the great big "workhorse" of nasa to begin with. it wasn't that great a design ultimately. i don't think they should have built multiple copies of it. it really shouldn't have been more than a test vehicle, and they should have moved on to other designs after learning what they could from it

The shuttle cabin was pretty big The parachute would have added mass. Hypothetically, yes it is possible that might have worked.