The 'lightning' story is a crock, but it's weird enough to tease viewers
with. There's been sound analysis
of the picture that provides adequate rationale for me to believe it shows
the shuttle itself 'squiggling' as the
time exposure is initiated and the camera shakes.



"Kerwin" wrote in message
...
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