[dmix]

> this foam, falling nine times faster than a fired bullet

Wouldn’t the foam initially be travelling as fast as the spacecraft? So it’s just the time between it’s release and hitting the wing to accelerate.

[CommieBobDole]

That's correct. The CAIB report says it was traveling at a relative speed of "625 to 840 feet per second" at the time of impact.

Which technically is the speed of a bullet, but just barely. Nowhere near nine times.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/akamai.netstorage/anon.nasa-global/C...

[csours]

The foam accelerated down and the spacecraft accelerated up.

[giantg2]

Yep, that's why the test speed estimates 200 fps. There's no mention of if the incident velocity is similar to the test velocity though.

[wdurden]

Don't dare try to question the narrative with physics and science. A Feynman and an O ring in ice water or a Tufte on visualizations will always be hired in at certain levels. For heaven's sake never go down the rabbit hole about how often the shuttles lost heat tiles. It was the foam, unforeseen and unforeseeable.

[wdurden]

Oh, but yes, that PP slide was bad. Symantic's More on a Mac Plus would have allowed a better job 15 years earlier.