[FITZ]

The meteor I saw was earlier, I'm not even sure what time---and I only saw one large one but it made me wonder if something like a meteor could hit the shuttle and damage it enough to make it explode.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Yes, it's possible.

Or an in-space collision (with other debris or a meteor) could have damaged part of the wing. Big enough collision to tear things up a lot "probably" would have been felt though, and given some vibration or impact that would have been reported.