4 ms·

Really puts into perspective (or doesn't) something like Columbia breaking up at somewhere around 14,000mph.

• mikeash 11y ago
  It was also at about 200,000ft at the time. There's not much air up there. I'd bet that in terms of impact, 780MPH at 4,000ft is significantly worse.
  • arnold_palmur 11y ago
    That's an interesting thought - is 780mph at 4000ft worse or just different? It's clear that the lower your altitude, the more air there will be to "interact" with - however, even at an extremely high altitude (with virtually no air), at those speeds I would imagine that there is absolutely 0% chance of survival given all of the heat generated (among other things).
    • mikeash 11y ago
      You are surely correct about the heating, what with how it was melting and burning through various hardware on the Shuttle at that point. Expose a human to that and they won't last long, even if the aerodynamic stresses are survivable.