Listening to today's news conference, it sounds like the first bits of odd telemetry began at 7:53 Central Time, which was when the Shuttle was precisely over my head. Damn all gods of weather who slapped a solid marine layer over my head that morning. It was clear as a bell the day before and after. If, as other California observers have noted, a small bit broke away from the main body at that time, I would have seen it. I look for stuff like that when the Shuttle and ISS go over. Just in case.

Has anyone seen footage of the reentry other than the breakup footage over Texas? SOMEBODY in California, Arizona, and New Mexico must have been taking movies.

If this small bit is significant, it may be that a very important piece of evidence is on the ground somewhere in the American Southwest, a thousand miles west of the debris field.. Maybe with a lot of luck, someone will find it, and NASA should put out an APB for evidence elsewhere besides just Texas, if they haven't already.