Ok, so today i was online, as i am now, watching music videos that aren't on TV.
Specifically, i was watching 'Sing for Absolution' by Muse.
in the video, which can be found here: (just scroll down till you see 'Sing For Absolution')
http://www.microcuts.net/uk/multimedia it takes place in the future, in which a new ice age has happened, and it seems that they are sending out astronauts to search for other planets, as when the spacecraft takes off, we see not only a biiiig electronic billboard in space, but lots of space junk from presumably other spacecraft. So they dock with the 'cryo module', which sends them into a 'wormhole' (? - only because it might be a wormhole, might be traveling faster than the speed of light - whatever, its a music video, lets not try and critique it..its the music that counts) which gets them to a very Mars-like looking planet with a pretty impossibly dang crowded asteroid belt, so they have to do some nifty manuveurs, but they skid one, damaging te cryo unit, so that seperates. The "crew" vehicle descends at a REEEEEAALLLLY fast speed, looking like a fireball, going down towards the planet in a downward spiral, and you can see the g-forces on their face. At about 4:00 minutes into the video, as they are descended, the 'air brakes' (?) are opened, and the force generated by the speed that they are traveling causes teh air brakes, and basically the back 'wings' to just sheer clear off.

(<--I'd be officially scared at that point) So they somehow are able to straighten out right before they become pancaked to the planet, and skid along the ground for a couple hundred meters. The spacecraft is for lack of a better word - totaled, so they go out and explore and they look across what seems to be a dry riverbed with a natural bridge looking thing and realize that they are looking at a destroyed....
London?!
That part just kinda threw me for a loop.
Anyways, my question is: For any spacecraft, if they are made from the same materials as the shuttle, how fast would they have to be traveling in order for parts to sheer clear off from the force? This is assuming there is no damage to the aircraft.
Also, did the wormhole sequence kinda look like a modern version of the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey when they go 'Beyond the Infinite' to anyone else? I thought it did!