I was in the middle of our morning briefing with Mission Control. They had a new list of experiments they wanted us to setup on the micro gravity crystal lab and I was thinking about how it would screw up the normal schedule. Suddenly the communications officer interrupted the conversation and asked me to look out the window and report back. A quick look out the window showed what should of been a breathtaking view of the Eastern seaboard was instead completely covered with a thick dark cloud cover. The last weather report I has seen called for clear sky’s over most of the USA. As I was trying to make sense of the scene below a huge fireball appeared over where I thought New York should be . Mission Control asked again – can you see anything? I looked around and saw my 7 crew members had joined me on the flight deck and were staring in disbelief out the small windows at the burning Earth 265 miles below. The radio interrupted our silence with the words “Discovery, we have a problem – hold for updates”