[John Jamieson]

Landing weight of sts107 = 232788 (from another freeper)
sts96 = 219890
sts98 = 198909

Unless there has been a heavier reentry I couldn't find, STS107 was subjected to about 6% more heat load than any other Shuttle in the history of the program. Other Shuttle flights may have far more tolerent of any tile damage than this one.

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Yes, the video looks like a sheet of ice and frost to me. I don't think foam would pulverize like that. Ice would probably do much more damage than foam (it could also have been a combination). 16 degrees seems like a fairly steep angle of impact to me, already.

I'm curious to know the frame rate of the high speed film so the velocity could be estimated. This stuff may have come from farther up the tank, near the nose (vent valves), and therefore moving faster when it hit.

Boy, am I impressed with Dittemore, he should be the new NASA director, but they'll probably fire him instead if history is any lesson.

[r9etb]

Yes, the video looks like a sheet of ice and frost to me.

On STS-32 there was an iguana crawling up the ET just prior to launch. He either fell off once they lit the mains, or he ducked into the oxygen vent at the very top. At any rate, he wasn't there after the "twang."

We used the little fellow as a mascot for a group we had -- called ourselves the "barbequed iguanas."

I don't think this was an iguana strike, though....