[snopercod]

A well-written and informative article, although the sensor measurements don't all jibe with what was initially reported.

Fox News has been showing the WFAA video (taken by an amateur photographer) which zoomed in on the shuttle flying "sideways" just before it broke up. Rewinding to the very beginning of that video, close inspection showed a large object separating from the orbiter.

I'm thinking that must have been the vertical stabilizer, since there was no vertical stab visible in the "sideways" frame.

[Moonman62]

I'm thinking that must have been the vertical stabilizer, since there was no vertical stab visible in the "sideways" frame.

That would make sense if the orbiter had just turned sideways, putting a huge load on the vertical stab. Yesterday, NASA said they were concerned with the rate of correction of those yaw thrusters that had fired. They didn't say if it was overrate or underrate, though.

[ContemptofCourt]

Please do your homework and read the previous articles which have explained this photo....it is just a fuzzy picture of light....

[jlogajan]

Fox News has been showing the WFAA video (taken by an amateur photographer) which zoomed in on the shuttle flying "sideways"

There is no such video. The video you are referring to was an out of focus condition where the shape of the video camera iris formed the shape of the bright object.

[freepersup]

There is a raging debate here as to whether what we are seeing is an aperture phenomenon (illusion) or the shuttle hurtling sideways. I don't think for one second that it is anything other than the shuttle hurtling across the sky in it's final seconds of being.

There is an obvious smoke and debris contrail, hyper flight speed is apparent, debris shedding can be seen, and the image resembles the shuttle albeit distorted.

Distortion causes: poor optics, mach 18 flight speed, subject is multiple miles away, subject is emitting a heat signature which distorts it's image (think of the mirage effect by the sun heating roads or earth- 140 degrees vs the shuttle surface of 2-3,000 degrees).

The example of the aperture image provided here, to convince us that we are seeing an illusion looks nothing like the shuttle capture image. It looks like an aperture.

The shuttle capture image looks a hell of a lot more like the shuttle than it does an aperture.