I’ve watched our shuttle footage and have seen things floating around at times.
At roughly the 3:45 time slot, there is an item that floats up away from the spacecraft that is spinning end over end. IMO, water resistance would not allow that item to float away like that. Any spin momentum would have been dampened. The speed would have been hampered. The object wouldn’t have gone in a straight line.
I know that things did float up, but thinking of this logically, the portal is on the top side. Anything coming out of that portal would obviously move away from it.
What folks seem to be missing, is all the hoses in the foreground toward the last of the video clip. Those hoses could not have been re-entry worthy. I don’t see any shielding. The capsule seems to be one long metallic cylinder. It does not look re-entry worthy.
If someone has an explanation for any of this, I’d be interested to hear it. Any feedback would be appreciated.