>        http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993584
 >Tests have revealed that an object spotted falling from the space shuttle
 >Columbia on the second day of its doomed mission was (((apparently))) a
 >panel of protective heat-resistant tiles.
 >
 >The absence of this panel would have provided a point of entry in the
 >shuttle's left wing for the superhot gases that investigators believe got
 >inside the craft during re-entry. The plasma melted the shuttle's aluminium
 >frame and caused the craft to disintegrate, with the loss of all seven
 >astronauts aboard.
 >
 >Radar pictures revealed the object falling from the shuttle as it performed
 >a pivotal manoeuvre in orbit for a scientific experiment. Investigators have
 >now taken radar images of various shuttle components to try to find a match.

I realise this is just a verbatim quote from newscientist.com but I wonder
at the credibility. Stuff doesn't "fall" in these conditions, if something
detached from the spacecraft it would simply drift away. Ok, maybe just
semantics but you'd think a journal with "science" in its name would be
more precise.

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