Air Force imagery confirms Columbia wing damaged

Spaceflightnow.com ^ | 02/07/03 | CRAIG COVAULT

[Thud]

This is the original, detailed, story.

[jlogajan]

Fox News has been showing the WFAA video (taken by an amateur photographer) which zoomed in on the shuttle flying "sideways"

There is no such video. The video you are referring to was an out of focus condition where the shape of the video camera iris formed the shape of the bright object.

[cinFLA]

The ragged edge on the left leading edge, indicates that either a small structural breach -- such as a crack -- occurred, allowing the 2,500F reentry heating to erode additional structure there, or that a small portion of the leading edge fell off at that location.

NASA: "We will continue to focus on the things we cannot see." /sarcasm

[HAL9000]

It would be nice if NASA would release the picture.

I'd guess there was a lot of uniform linear motion blur in the original image. Some image processing may have been required to get a discernable image.

I hope they will release the pre-processed and post-processed images.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you for the ping.

[jpsb]

I've (almost from the start) been leaning towards space junk or small (very small) meteorite.

[kjam22]

Then you are a tin-foiler, if you think that a foreign gov (limited to who? Russia and China) shot down the shuttle using a space-based weapon....

Yet the president tells us that terrorists might have the ability to spread chemical weapons over our country with a drone. We never thought of that idea until yesterday either. The shuttle is believed to be breaking up now over California. It seems quite possible that the damage actually started over the pacific ocean and was first observed over California.

LOL... you have no imagination.

Here is what I don't believe. I dont' believe that foam falling off of the fuel tank did the damage being described.

[cinFLA]

You premis on launch cycle rates is based on history; not the rate that was planned. Thus your "lifetime" figure is off.

[DoughtyOne]

The crew was had EV suits on the mission. Dittemore explained that in one news conference, explaining they might need to manually close the shuttle cargo bay doors. Evidently there are always EV suits.

Teathers would have allowed them access to the bay, something else he admitted. The damage we are now hearing about talks about damage to the leading edge of the wing. Peering over the edge of the cargo bay, an astronaut could have likely seen the damage as desribed from the photo.

It seems to me that NASAs can't do attitude screwed this pooch from day one. No photos were requested, couldn't help. No EVA was requested, couldn't possibly see any damage.

[Fixit]

Isn't there a camera on the end of the Canada robot arm?

Is the arm in place on every mission?

[Truth29]

The fact that NASA didn't try any rescue or repair and keeps stating that there were no alternatives just rubs people the wrong way. Even if they are correct, there will be political and personnel consequences now that so many people have heard the blunt statements.

[Vinnie_Vidi_Vici]

Do "Your" homework sir. don't just read the rehash. I've taken the photo,used a sharpening algorithm on it and changed the gamma to give it the proper contrast. it IS the shuttle at what appears to be a 30 degree down angle vieved from the rear and travelling sideways to the left. No vertical stabilizer appears but flying sideways can play heck with that!

[DoughtyOne]

No, it wasn't on this mission. There wasn't room due to the cargo specific to this mission.

[DoughtyOne]

I think there's a lot of truth in your comment. The early can't do statements just rubbed me the wrong way, put my hackles up right away.

NASA may be proven right in time and I'll just be some hothead who shot his mouth off. We'll have to wait and see.

Thanks for the comment.

[Vinnie_Vidi_Vici]

The camera that took the pic is capable of panning at a high enough rate to eliminate motion blur, if it were rotating rapidly about any of its axis (pl) that is a different matter

[Go Gordon]

They also show the orbiter's right aft yaw thrusters firing, trying to correct the vehicle's attitude that was being adversely affected by the left wing damage.

I thought i was reading a political statement. Firing from the right to correct damage from the left wing? Chilling...

[lepton]

FYI

[Brett66]

Robot cams would be a possibility and the ability to do temporary patches in space is required

I remember seeing a robot a few years ago designed to be a visual inspector for the outside of the ISS. It was a spherical bot with a small camera inside it that used nitrogen jets to manuever in space does anyone else remember this and what happened to this?

[FReepaholic]

>>...Peering over the edge of the cargo bay...<<

Technically, it would be peering over the edge of the open payload bay door.

[r9etb]

Doh!

Well, hugh, it looks like you've entered the FReeper lexicon already. Congrats!