[nhoward14]

Debris recovered from Challenger showed that some astronauts survived the explosion and survived through the descent to Earth. They were then killed instantly upon impact with the water.

[garbanzo]

They were then killed instantly upon impact with the water.

Which I guess was sort of what I was getting at - unless there is some way of guiding the remnant down gently, I don't see the point of keeping the astronauts alive and conscious until the impact. I guess it would be important in cases where decompression didn't lead to complete destruction of the craft but I don't know how many scenarios would lead to that result.