In article ,
Kristan Roberge wrote:

As to Challenger, my understanding of post accident investigations were that
the crew were pretty
much all recovered together, and still strapped to their seats in the cabin,
and that they may
have still been alive post explosion (though unconscious). An ejection seat
system that could have blown them clear
of the crew compartment in such a major system failure would possible have
been useful.

So much for any useful payload...