[yooper]

"...they are downplaying the theory that foam insulation falling from the shuttle's extra tank may have contributed to the shuttle's demise."

Of course they are. "I swear to God that it was a Sprite."

NASA was in radio contact with the shuttle throughout. Had the commander experienced this phenomenon he would have said so. If the Sprite had occurred during the last radio transmission, NASA should have heard it. Maybe they did, and they're not talking about it. As for my own prognosis, I believe that the wing damage scenario is much more likely than a Sprite. The evidence as currently known points heavily in that direction, a direction that NASA officials would sooner not travel.

[Illbay]

What, someone threw a soft drink can out the window during launch? First I've heard of it.

[MonroeDNA]

Do not look at the man behind the curtain!

BTW, I wonder how the CFC-based ("Let's go back to the older glue") adhesive replacement program is going. You gotta know, it is being done right now.

"Gee, we used inferior glue, even though we were exempt? Three times as many tile incedents occured after? Let's just kinda go back to the original glue, and don't tell a soul!"

"Whatever you do, don't tell them that such-and-such pushed this down our throats. You will be unemployed sooo fast!"

"It was blue darts, we swear!"

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

You assume that the commander would have known they had been hit and you are assuming that NASA would have heard it. Since the space shuttle was traveling at 18 times the speed of sound when it broke apart, I doubt anyone would have heard it.

[Resolute]

"...they are downplaying the theory that foam insulation falling from the shuttle's extra tank may have contributed to the shuttle's demise."

Reminds me of some famous movie lines . . .

pay no attention to that man behing the curtain . . .

which are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes . . .

[Junior]

NASA was in radio contact with the shuttle throughout.

No it wasn't. There is a point during reentry where the reentering vehicle is unable to maintain radio contact with the ground (or anyone else for that matter) because the heat plume around the vehicle interferes with radio waves.

[Wonder Warthog]

"NASA was in radio contact with the shuttle throughout. Had the commander experienced this phenomenon he would have said so."

I don't think so. There might simply not have been enough time. If there was a transient charge condition in that area of the atmosphere, I can easily see how the shuttle could cause it do "discharge" prematurely, as the hot plasma generated by descent atmospheric heating would make an excellent "conductor" to allow such a discharge. It might well not have been a fully-developed sprite, just a "pre-sprite" condition.