today I watched the entire briefing to the press by the head of NASA. He said the
insulation could not have damaged anything to that extent. they have run scenarios
where quite a few of the tiles were damaged or gone and none lead to catastrophic
breakup. size x density x velocity = momentum hitting the tiles just wont do that
kind of damage.
He said the leading edge of the wing was 2000 degrees and the 30-60o increase didnt
amount to anything that would lead to catastrophic breakup.
He is saying they still dont have the "missing link".
Ingrid

"BenignVanilla" wrote:
On a side note, some of the reports I have been hearing are beginning to
point more and more to the insulation that impacted the port wing on take
off. From what I have heard a temperature increase of 60 degrees over 5
minutes occured in that are of the vehicle. Moments later the sensors in
that area stopped sending telemetry. My gut tells me, NASA is now quite
aware of the cause, but are taking the appropriate steps before making an
announcement.