[CyberAnt]

But ... in one of the close-up films the shuttle appears to be going sideways instead of nose up at a " \ " slanted angle to keep the shuttle from burning up.

[steveegg]

Considering that there was abnormal heating and various failures of temperature sensors on the left wing well before contact was lost, and up until the loss of contact, there was no indication of an abnormal descent in the ballistic sense, it is probable that the sideways shuttle was a result of either a failure of the control surfaces or of the wing (I haven't seen that particular tape, so I don't know if the wing was still substantially intact at that point).