'Hi-tech' shuttle pic really low-tech

CNN ^ | 2/12/03 | Associated Press

[hc87]

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (AP) -- The shadowy, closely analyzed photo of space shuttle Columbia's underside was not snapped with cutting-edge military equipment, but by three researchers playing around with an old computer and a home telescope in their free time, officials said Wednesday.

[hc87]

Wow.

[First_Salute]

Yeah, my '67 Kodak Instamatic can see the etched serial numbers on the Orbiter rocket motor bell housings.

[anymouse]

Space ping

[coloradan]

No kidding. On one of the original Starfire threads, I calculated that the spatial resolution of that telescope should reveal details to about 3" on the shuttle - about the size of a single tile.

[jenny65]

So does this mean thr Air Force has better quality pics? No mention of that.

I read another article today that said the company in charge of taking the liftoff pictures has had problems with quality lately. The pictures that we've seen of the insulation hitting the shuttle SHOULD have been much higher quality. I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere and I don't have a link. I read it in a hardcopy of the NYT.

[coloradan]

The people who work here are geeks.

LOL!

[Jael]

What is going on? NASA and the Air Force make mistakes like that? I doubt it.

[Thud]

Why am I not suprised?

[patriot5186]

Geek alert! Well at least they didn't use an etch-a-sketch.

[HaveGunWillTravel]

sounds like an Onion headline.

[eno_]

So this opens a can of worms:

Did NASA ask the Starfire people for pictures?

Did NASA down-rate the images made publicly available?

I suspect this all eventually leads to two conclusions:

1. NASA knew things could be pretty bad.

2. NASA, for various reasons, chose the most optimistic interpretation of information they had.

[jlogajan]