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Is it SOP for the USAF to photograph all shuttle flights? If not, why was this flight photographed? Do they photograph only flights only if there is a USAF experiment or USAF equipment to be deployed?

Certainly the photos must of sufficient quality to be of use. Would the USAF would take pictures of Columbia if not directed to?

Unless of course we have "rogue" USAF personnel snapping pics. I've seen posts stating that any pics are, "of low quality", " of little use", "it can't be done", "they can't use them to determine damage".

Why would the USAF take any pics if that's the case?

Good questions. Somehow I doubt that the Air Force would take photos if they didn't expect to get clear crisp detailed results. However, I'm sure some of the contributors to this and a few other threads will explain why they would, momentum being the force of nature that it is.

What gets me is why there is so many tapes of this re-entry. If spaceflight is supposed to be so mundane by now, why were so many people rolling tape of THIS flight. I have never heard of this much interest in a return to eath in a very long time, especialy during the Shuttle program. I'm glad they did it. It might help in this case. As far as detailed photos, after thr return-to flight, maybe NASA could train some sattelites to get clearer images of the shuttle on orbit. No atmospheric disturbance at all. And some of those birds have better optics than most ground based devices. This may have been tried on earlier missions. Might not be a bad idea. The earlier in the flight this is done, the more time would be allowed to come up with some sort of plan to bring the next orbiter back that has a problem like Columbia apparently had. Just a thought. May the STS-107 crew rest in peace.