[Moose4]

How did this reentry differ from previous ones? Do you normally hear a sonic boom?

Just a guess here...but my guess would be that the sonic booms all over east Texas were coming from debris still moving at over Mach 1 as it fell. If Columbia were moving at 12000+ mph when it came apart, then the pieces would still be supersonic for a good long time, probably long enough to hit atmosphere thick enough to make a boom. I don't think there's enough density at 207,000 feet to make a noise that you'd hear on the ground.

}:-)4

[michigander]

Good gosh.

Dan Rather and CBS News is putting crank callers on the air now.

Some crank calling claiming to have debris in his yard. At least he said something that is true, he called Rather an IDIOT.

[plsvn]

Moose4:

I don't think there's enough density at 207,000 feet to make a noise that you'd hear on the ground.

I saw the Shuttle re-entry that brought Dr. Shannon Lucid home from her stay on Mir. I viewed this from Calgary, Alberta, and the Shuttle was higher than 200,000 at that time. There was a sonic boom, a faint one, but one nevertheless.