[Wonder Warthog]

"NASA was in radio contact with the shuttle throughout. Had the commander experienced this phenomenon he would have said so."

I don't think so. There might simply not have been enough time. If there was a transient charge condition in that area of the atmosphere, I can easily see how the shuttle could cause it do "discharge" prematurely, as the hot plasma generated by descent atmospheric heating would make an excellent "conductor" to allow such a discharge. It might well not have been a fully-developed sprite, just a "pre-sprite" condition.

[jlogajan]

It would be hard to believe that a lightning bolt could do structural damage yet not glitch any of the electronics on-board. That's somewhat of a reversal of typical lightning strikes.