[Justa]

I don't see how the 2 sources are at odds. Would you expect NASA to base their initial comments upon their telemetry data or upon a news station's video clip? Since we have both, we can use both. Why shouldn't we? I see the video sequence quite accurately matching information from NASA regarding burn-up starting on the left side.

I'm confident that when this video is enhanced there will be no doubt. I have a frame frozen here which I refer to. There are others like it of similar or lesser quality. It's quite clear and quite chilling. The tail is clearly visible. It is seperated from the orbiter (still intact) and perpindicular to the field of view. The black rudder markings are even visible on it. My post (#8) pretty much sums up my take. The information is there. The film simply requires study.

[_Jim]

BY the time the orbiter readched the DFW area - the shuttle was already out of proper 'attitude' fo re-entry - it *did* not come down on account of a 'tail failure'.

The TIMELIME sheds some light on this: STS-107 was scheduled to be overhead in the DFW area at about 8:03 AM CDT.

By 8:00 AM CDT (straight up) NASA had already experienced comm (and telemetry) failure. The craft was already doomed when it reached the DFW area ...

STS-107 had already experienced catastrophic problems for 3 minutes by the time the video was captured by WFAA CH 8 in Dallas.