[betty boop]

Do you have any specific reasons WHY we can rule out Heat Tile Failure? (I'm curious)

The reports I'm hearing suggest that the loss of some heat tiles on reentry is actually quite normal -- most flights lose heat tiles. This would need to be a loss of tiles of catastrophic proportions. Yet all the exhaustive tests the crew conducted yesterday in preparation for re-entry indicated no problems with the craft or any of its vital systems. If there is a heat-tile component involved here, then (speculating) perhaps it was occasioned at the point of the attitude change. That is, it would be the result of another cause. It has further been reported that it's unlikely the attitude change came from an on-board explosion.

Of course, I really don't know what happened for sure, Chad Fairbanks. We'll just have to wait for the experts to weigh in.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I know about the loss of tiles being normal - I think we are both in agreement on much of what you say, but so far the loss of critical heat tiles (i.e. in an area where it was not thought that such catastrophic results could ever occur a sort of 'who would have thunk THAt could happen???' type scenario...) seems to be the most likely cause (pending more detailed info, of course) for now... of course, I'm only speculating - I just wanted to know if you were looking at it differently :0)

:0)