Well normally I would agree with you.Well, think about muffaletaman's response, too, then. Or think about this...what would you expect to see when zooming in on a fireball at least 40 miles away? If you kept it in focus, you'd expect to see the trailing plume in greater detail, just like the rest of the scene. Wouldn't you?
Is that what you see here?
Very true, and the facts about clarity and such can play havoc with perceptions. The shuttle does bank heavily to both sides upon reentry. I don't think it's doing that but we really can't tell, or at least I can't. I also think one of the reasons much of this looks distorted is that we're not really seeing the actual shuttle but the bright ionic plasma layer. There's about a dozen or so things that could give distortion to the pics.