Not long after the bobbing booster was fished out of the Atlantic, a team of troubleshooters determined the wire broke away from a connector.

CNN: Challenger explosion

Details are still fluid on precisely what such a connector would look like and do, but the expectation is that it'll be built out of copper wire, will be flatter and thinner than Thunderbolt's rotund construction, and will be able to channel power as well as data through to devices up to 10 feet (3m) away.

ENGADGET: PCI Express cables could take us to 32Gbps speeds by 2013