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Fri Jun 6,11:39 PM ET

                          A crack is seen on an internal rib of reinforced carbon in panel 6 of a
                          space shuttle wing replica following a foam-impact test on Friday June
                          6, 2003 in San Antonio, Texas. The crack is located on the side
                          closest to panel 7. A chunk of foam fired at high speed cracked a pair
                          of space shuttle wing parts Friday, offering what investigators said was
                          the most powerful evidence yet to support the theory that a piece of the
                          stiff, lightweight insulation doomed Columbia. (AP Photo/Columbia
                          Accident Investigation Board)

                                        Foam chunks (R) break apart after being shot from a cannon and
                                        hitting a space shuttle wing replica during testing at the Southwest
                                        Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, June 6, 2003. According to
                                        investigators, the foam chunk cracked the wing replica (skid marks
                                        visible on lower portion) offering the most powerful evidence yet to
                                        support the theory that foam cracked the wing on the Space Shuttle
                                        Columbia that broke apart over Texas, Feb. 1. Photo by Pool/Reuters

Same topic...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/924747/posts

FYI.

Could someone tell me how the speed the foam was traveling came to be over 500 miles an hour? Weren't the foam and the tank traveling at the same speed as the shuttle when the foam came loose? I assume that the 500 miles an hour was the speed the shuttle accelerated between the time the foam came loose and the wing struck it? It seems to me that the shuttle couldn't have accelerated that much in the brief instance of time between the foam coming loose and the wing striking it.

Isn't escape velocity somewhere around 12,000 miles per hour?