2/1/03 11:50:09 AM, Steve Eisenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Thought I'd let you know.
Broke up is probably a better way of putting it IMHO... It was apparently doing Mach 18 (12,000 mph) at 200,000 ft. at the time, about halfway through re-entry. The only decently educated anaysis I've read/heard suggested from photos that a wing may have come off, but I'd expect it to be at least a month or a few before real facts are known. I've been listening to the local public radio station all morning, which has been doing really decent coverage since contact was lost at sometime before 9:30 this morning, when its contrail split up over Texas as it was headed towards Cape Canaveral. Anything in re-entry has extreme thermal stresses to deal with... It wouldn't take much to cause this. It wasn't just Americans aboard, so I hope those living outside America won't be too offended by this off-topic post. If you are, I apologize. Roger Twitchell who has been into aircraft & science since early elementary school '85 Si
