[Cboldt]

Are they finally admitting heat? Yesterday all they kept saying was "Off chart low" or some such

Are you sure of that? The discussion yesterday included comments about the bond line temperature; and while some instruments indeed did go off-scale low (lost instrument), my recollection is yesterday, NASA also reported that some instruments indicated anomolous readings.

[Revel]

Most likely the temp reading can be explained. Initially they showed an increase in temperature. Eventually the temperature would be high enough to destroy the sensor or the connecting wires to it. This would explain the eventual off scale reading. The computer was still operating and had not yet been effected by the heat which was in the left wing area. So it was just sending out a message which just basically indicated that it could no longer read information from the sensor. My guess is that what happened next was that the left wing area started to break apart from the heat. This would send the craft tumbling out of control which would then cause the rest of it to come apart and explode. At this point all communication would be lost.