concerns this:

Holding up the pale yellow chunk, Dittemore described the lightweight insulation as "fragile.” "It's easy to break and it's easy to break up into particles,” he said.

What are the physical properties of the foam at very cold temperatures? The foam came off the ET and was exposed to temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero. Under those conditions, is it still fragile and easy to break, or does it become hard? That makes a huge difference when modeling the behavior of the impact.

All it would take is a simple test to answer my question - take a sample of the foam, cool it to the temperatures involved, and measure the characteristics. If it's still as fragile as it is at room temperature, then perhaps the foam didn't do much damage after all. On the other hand, if the foam insulation becomes hard, then that needs to be plugged into the impact analysis.