Christian - I heard someone suggest something today on the radio that made
the most sense. It wasn't the tiles - because they have lost tiles before
without catastrophic consequences. The leading edge of the wing has the most
heat during re-entry (obviously) and had a different material from the
tiles.

When the foam - or whatever it was - broke off during liftoff and hit the
wing - that's when the damage occurred. And if that was the case (who knows
right now?) then there wouldn't have been a thing anybody could have done.
Columbia was doomed from the liftoff.

I also heard a couple of other interesting things - (a) some think it began
falling apart over California (400,000 foot altitude - 7:1 glide ratio)  -
which given the speed they were going - was only minutes behind Texas and
(b) a shuttle has a 1 in 200 chance every liftoff of having something
catastrophic happen - that's pretty lousy odds if you ask me...

Bill

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