[Revelation 911]

does it strike any one oddly that a photo was snapped basically when we lost contact?

Is ground based photog normal ops ?

[mewzilla]

Is this the only AF photography out there? Was there any done while the shuttle was still in orbit?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Is ground based photog normal ops ?

I thnk it was a photo of opportunity, based on the Shuttle's flight path. The facility at White Sands has one of the best CCD (digital camera) telescopes in the world which the Air Force uses to look at sattelites as well as track asteroids, they've almost tripled (I think) the number of asteroids identified.