12:41 PM
STS-107 DISASTER, Part III
(for Part I, 8:42 AM - 12:04 PM CST, click here to jump down)
(For Part II, 12:10 - 2:20 PM CST, click here to jump down)

(2:32 PM CST)
The second NASA press conference is underway. Though they say it's still much too early to come to any conclusions, some of the early indicators they're looking at are a series of events where the temperature sensors in the left wing were the first to go.That was followed by loss of tire pressure measurements from the left main landing gear and structural sensors. Manufacture of STS components has been put into "slowdown" mode until the investigating team decides how to proceed, and future flights are currently on hold (the March mission--where ISS crew rotation was supposed to occur--is almost assuredly scrubbed, as they say the crew on the space station "may not see us until June".)

(2:47 PM)
Time enters the informed speculation business.

Eyewitness reports from debris sites are hitting the web. Metafilter user Yangwar says:

"I live in Nacogdoches, TX where some of the wreckage has been found. My fiancee and I went out and took pictures of some of it. We saw about 4 different pieces but we saw bystanders looking at many, many more throughout town. The largest intact piece was about 4 feet by 3 feet or so. There's a fair amount of white powder near the impact sites. An interesting point is none of the pieces seemed to be very heat damaged; I thought they would be. e.g. There were two metal tubes connected by a bolt that landed in somebody's back yard. The metal didn't appear to have melted and the grass around the metal wasn't burned or anything. I always thought that metal falling from 200K feet up would be pretty damn hot upon impact. I'll see if I can get some pictures hosted soon." In a later post, he provides a link to his pictures.

(3:01 PM)
Via Calpundit, the Christian Science Monitor take a look at the potential international impact of the disaster.

Steve Miller captured the NOAA radar loop and made it into a QuickTime movie.

(3:29 PM)
David Brown has posted pictures of the Astronaut Memorial at KSC. It's about to get more crowded. (via boingboing)