[John Jamieson]

It was a December launch. I didn't think that they knew it was insulation for sure.

[John Jamieson]

Does anyone have a copy of the STS107 press kit? I've tried several time to download it but it hasn't worked. I want to know the expected landed weight.

I did fine several other missions that had landing weights from about 200,000 to 220,000 pounds for other orbiters. I also found a Columbia flight that came back essentially empty at 220,000 pounds. The Double Spacehab weighed almost 30,000 pounds, possible putting the landing weight of this mission at 250,000 pounds? That would make this the highest weight reentry ever and the hottest.

Also I found that max heating is at 18.03 Mach, a very familar sounding speed.

Is it possible that Columbia was overloaded????