[Budge]

Budge, what about the reports this morning that the trouble for the shuttle may have started a minute earlier thatn NASA had been saying?

I don't know, and can't confirm just when the trouble started.

NASA is reviewing the tape from the Australian astronomer in California that he took as it was passing over. It clearly shows something comming off Cloumbia then. That alone would put the beginning of trouble earlier.

Then there is the video the two young men took as it passed over Nevada. It clearly shows something comming off. They even comment on it on the tape. What I have no idea is, is that he same pice that the fellow in California saw and photographed, or another piece.

As far as your origional question of the time line, it will take someone much smarter than I to determine just that put Columbia. I'm thinking in the California/Nevada area though. Perhaps Snooperpod or bonesmccoy can better answer.

[bonesmccoy]

I believe that the astronomers were at the Cal Tech radio telescope array in the Owens Valley. The Owens Valley is a very dry environment East of the Eastern face of the Sierra Nevada range. NASA would need to triangulate the videography done at Owens Valley with the videography in Nevada to evaluate if it is the same piece.

Since the orbiter is 50-60 miles high at that point, it is entirely possible that the two videographers noted the same event. Where was the videographer in Nevada?

[r9etb]

Then there is the video the two young men took as it passed over Nevada. It clearly shows something comming off. They even comment on it on the tape. What I have no idea is, is that he same pice that the fellow in California saw and photographed, or another piece.

I'm guessing that it was a different piece. The stuff falling off early would have been primarily tiles, I think, and they're so light that they'd fall behind quickly.

California to Nevada is probably about a minute's flight....