[r9etb]

BTW, CNN is now reporting that tonight the people at NASA say it might have been something at the BACK of the shuttle that might have gone wrong -- I cannot remember the name -- but the part he pointed to look like flaps (if that is what you would call them.)

Body flap, perhaps?

From another thread:

This is from the Dallas TV video. It appears to show the Shuttle as seen from behind. The dark rectangle in the middle looks like the body flap -- and the right-hand corner appears broken.

Over Dallas, of course, things have been falling off for a while -- something like a main engine could have broken off and damaged the flap....

[Howlin]

I swear I thought it started with an E or a I sound......any ideas?

[Erasmus]

Also, where the heck is the vert stabilizer?

[Chesterbelloc]

I saw that on video shot on tv today and thought it was the shuttle too, but check out these two messages:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834013/posts?q=1&&page=101 (post #126)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834152/posts (post #35)

And thinking about it, that would be quite a zoom lens to get that much of a close up from at least 40 miles away.