[John Jamieson]

Some real facts

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 been far more tolerant of any tile damage than this one.

Jan 16th was perfect for ice formation, low 40s 100%RH.

[capitan_refugio]

Okay, if you know on day two you have big problem, you jettison and leave the Space lab in orbit. How much weight do you save? 6%? 10%?

Then, can you reconfigure you re-entry to minimize stress on the vehicle? Rather than the yaw maneuvers to bleed off speed which seem to differentially heat and stress the wings, were there other options that could have been programmed?

How close did they get to emerging from the maximum heating on the tiles (and probable fatal weakening on the wing)? Was there a re-entry path that would have subjected the orbiter to longer time but lower temperatures, or greater temperatures for a shorter time?

I'm glad that someone with your vast experience is chiming in on this thread.

[Captain Beyond]

Also this is January and the atmospheric density will be greater.

[r9etb]

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 been far more tolerant of any tile damage than this one.

I googled Shuttle landing weight. These are not heavier, but close:

STS-99: 225,669
STS-97: 227,780
STS-50: 228,127

[Bryan24]

I'm sitting here at MSFC wondering about this.

Could there have been a "break" in the insulation, allowing moisture to get in behind the insulation allowing ice to build up?

And then it was actually a chunck of ice, not insulation that hit the the underside of the wing?