>>...For something with minimum lift and substantial density, like a big piece of metal wreckage, that's going to be in the vicinity of 200 or 300 miles per hour, meaning that the time to hit from 200,000 feet is roughly around 8-10 minutes....<<
Yeah, but Columbia's speed was around 12,000mph at the time of breakup.
NASA always opposed the idea of building a shuttle with an escape pod because they needed a vehicle that could carry heavy tonnage. But, I hear, they have never actually carried that much. So a smaller "truck" with "air-bags" should be designed to replace it. I thought I saw something in Popular Science suggesting such a vehicle is beyond the drawing board stage.