Replies

You seem to be rather knowledgable in the arena, and please forgive me if this question has been answered (I just can't bring myself to read 400+ posts asking why they didn't just go to the space station and have a cup of coffee while the shuttle was repaired)

The video shown on Fox looks like the shuttle went sideways, with the port side leading. IF the cracked tile was at fault, AND the wing heats rapidly, do you think the heating would cause the distortion of the leading edge of the wing? If this is the case, if the wing thins out slightly, the right wing would have more resistance, causing the shuttle to turn portside forward. If the distortion caused the leading edge to flatten out, the computer may have tried to overcompensate to the increased drag causing the portside slide.

Just wondering your opinion of the theory- I will wait for NASA's explanation of the physics.

The video shown on Fox looks like the shuttle went sideways, with the port side leading.

Problem: the Fox video was shot with a lens of insufficient focal length to show the Shuttle as anything more than a featureless point; any appearance of the Shuttle going sideways COULD be an artifact of the camera lens iris.

Additionally, I fail to see how increasing drag on the left side relative to the right side would cause the left side to lead into any yaw movement.