atakacs, you forgot to add at the end, ". . . or they'll shoot me!" You are quite right. I should have put a
after that little dig! As they boldly advertise Starfire's "1ft @ 600 miles" capability, the public release of an ultra lo-res blur seemed slightly bizarre to me. It would be sad indeed if that expensive bit of kit were unable to provide the investigators with such potentially vital evidence.
RBF, useful question - the relative velocity was not my calculation. ½MV² is about the limit of my practical Physics these days! It was based on the Jan 17 routine post-launch debris review which (I think) estimated that the debris had reached 744 mph / 1090 ft/s at the time of impact. I now note that in the Jan 21 report, that estimate had been reduced to "730 ft/s" (222 m/s) which would make the KE about 29,570 j (40,090 ft lb). Notwithstanding any math error on my part (!), those Jan estimates are a tad "ball-park" and may not have had total unanimity in their conclusions. Still, in the wrong place - quite a whack methinks. Enough to weaken a RCC panel or its attachments?
I am sure they'll work it out and have the remaining fleet up and running before too long. Good luck Admiral Gehman and team.