[seams2me]

Lots of nutcases will jump on this.

The shuttle was still around 200 ft, when this happened, and going faster than anything else on earth.

Whatever happened, it took place upon the shuttle itself.

[MetalHeadConservative35]

she might have been goin soo fast she just broke apart?

[Kevin Curry]

200,000+ feet, 12,500+ mph (a little higher and six times faster than a SR-71). You are right. There was no missile or other external cause.

[nwrep]

It is sickening, but at least 3 separate threads at DU blaming Bush/Rove for orchestrating this. Very few dissenters. How sad, how depraved of them.

[cgbg]

Lots of nutcases will jump on this

Nutcase note to future shuttle crews:

If you have a UFO dock with you, aliens board your vessel and give you artifacts for study do not, repeat, do not, report this activity _until after you have landed and secreted away evidence_. ;-)

(end of nutcase post)

More seriously, my sympathy goes out to the families (and less seriously) to the engineers and NASA bureaucrats who will have their heads handed to them for failing to use the correct bailing wire and scotch tape to keep the shuttle together during reentry. ;-)

[Dave S]

The shuttle was still around 200 ft, when this happened, and going faster than anything else on earth.

200,000 feet or almost 40 miles up.