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Was this previously reported? or just now being speculated?

It was reported and commented on upon launch. I believe it was the launch engineer who said that it should pose any problems during the flight.

They have made the announcement here at CPAC to the attendees in the main ballroom. Lots of very shocked people are wandering around the Crystal Gateway Marriott. Groups of people are standing around the TVs in the sports bar watching the film of the debris coming down.

Evidently one of the astronauts was a close friend of Wayne LaPierre's daughter.

I worked as a mechanical tech for Morton Thiokol in 1987 (post challenger) and spent my last days there working with the External tank crew. The insulation on the tank is very similar to the expandable foam that you can buy at a builders center. It is sprayed on the surface and is VERY sticky. I find it hard to believe that it could "fall off" the tank.

More than likely it may have been a piece of ice caused by the loading of liquid oxygen through the "beanie" at the top of the external tank.

It is obviously a break up of the air frame (ie structural failure) but until they locate and examine the debris, no one will know what happened.

~nomad