[fooman]

Point well taken. Its like throwing ice off the back of a car.

OF course, the ice would decel rapidly, but there is only a short distance.

Kool 61pmh. Thanks for your input.

[Kozak]

Still considering how soft that tile was, may have been enough of a bang... Maybe in the future they could add a "shield" to the bottom of the orbiter to protect the reentry tiles, then dump it once they got to orbit. Just a thought.