I watched it for the lightning, but it had a large section devoted to the
shuttle and the famous "purple streak" photo.
They showed the photo, which looked like purple lightning hitting Columbia.
The photo was a 6 second exposure, as the bolt hit
the trail behind Columbia noticeably brightened and stayed brighter than it
was before the hit.
Another observer was recording infrasound on a network designed to detect
nuclear explosions. At the time of the supposed lightning "hit" a sound
could be heard which was "out of profile" for a typical shuttle re-entry.
The Shuttle has no shielding against lightning strikes. The program went on
to explain that new types of lightning are being discovered, sixty times
more powerful than normal lightning. It fires up from the cloud.

Columbia was actually taking photos of this lightning phenomenon during it's
mission. It managed to capture lightning being triggered
by incoming meteors with no clouds present. This would have been the same
scenario as Columbia during re-entry.

What was indicated by this program was that Columbia was hit by an
electrical discharge during re-entry.
Whether this caused the break up, or contributed to it is unknown. But it
could be a factor to consider.

--

Kerwin Robertson