Senator: Concerned Columbia Crew took Pictures of Damaged Left Wing

Florida Today.com ^ | Februrary 5, 2003 1:20PM | Staff Wire Report

[Mo1]

Look I agree, many questions need to be answered but it is also early in the investigation

and the media has been all over this and they sure would report on it if he called them

[Jael]

Hasn't NASA already said that the crew did take pictures and stow the film away. I believe I read that. I don't have time to check my history right this minute but I might later tonight.

Wonder if they took any digital?

[juzcuz]

What bothers me--

I don't understand why satellite photo's where not taken. Today Colin Powell displayed satellite photo's (from space to the ground in Iraq). These photo's contained details on the trucks surrounding Sadam's factory (according to presentation labeled photo's). It seems to me that satellite photography is very powerful. I don't understand why satellite photography was deemed to be not effective by NASA to be able to show detail(marks) of the spacecraft which is logically much closer to the satellite.

[Poohbah]

I guess the Italians and the Israeli news service are bogus????

Yes, they are. It's a picture of the cargo bay, not the wing.

[Mo1]

I think it was reported they took pictures of the boasters .. and I am sure they would use a digital camera

[CyberAnt]

I don't know the answer to that either - curious ...??

[Ichneumon]

Sigh, time to play whack-a-mole again...

That's a photo of the cargo bay, not the wing, nor is it "cracked" -- proof here

[mr.pink]

I guess the Italians and the Israeli news service are bogus????

I'd guess they're as reliable as AP, UPI, or Rueters. But that's not the question I was replying to. You had asked if the cracks are real, I voiced my concerns by noting how easily they could be created and my concern with the bleeding blue.

[Jael]

DITTEMORE: We did alert the crew later on that we did have a debris impact from the tank onto the orbiter. We kept them informed of our analysis on the ground. And finally, as we have concluded that it was not going to be anything more than superficial, we alerted the crew to that fact.

I don't recall if we had any conversations from the crew to the ground, relative to the pictures that they took. Bob, do you recall?

CABANA: I don't -- I don't think there were any. Normally, the crew would take the pictures and stow that film, mark it and stow it for early return to Houston upon landing.

DITTEMORE: Especially given the knowledge that it was superficial and inconsequential, they went on with their business, stored the film and knew that we were interested in it as soon as they landed.

[Hanging Chad]

I wish those boasters would just shut up, don't you?

[Fred Mertz]

The stunning information would be that they were concerned and taking pictures at all -- not whether they had pics in-hand.

And that the brother on the ground shared this e-mailed info with his US Senator from Virginia. There was some obvious concern way high up in the skies and on the ground.

I understand the crew couldn't take a picture of the affected area because of visual limitations. I'd like to know what efforts NASA made to look at the left wing from afar.

[Jael]

DITTEMORE: We did alert the crew later on that we did have a debris impact from the tank onto the orbiter. We kept them informed of our analysis on the ground. And finally, as we have concluded that it was not going to be anything more than superficial, we alerted the crew to that fact.

I don't recall if we had any conversations from the crew to the ground, relative to the pictures that they took. Bob, do you recall?

CABANA: I don't -- I don't think there were any. Normally, the crew would take the pictures and stow that film, mark it and stow it for early return to Houston upon landing.

DITTEMORE: Especially given the knowledge that it was superficial and inconsequential, they went on with their business, stored the film and knew that we were interested in it as soon as they landed.

(Looks like a small contradiction there for NASA.)

[TheBattman]

But exactly how could they have possibly taken a picture of the wing? No windows within viewing angle - no EV suits to exit the shuttle, no external cameras.

Methinks that Senator has been hoodwinked by an internet hoax.....

[SarahW]

NASA said that the shuttle crew DID take pictures of the wing, however NASA said that FILM was used, and the images would not have been processed until after the crew returned to earth.

Day late, dollar short.

[Boot Hill]

Hi CO,

I too, also heard NASA say that the robot arm was not aboard. And as far as a telescope on the ground viewing the orbiter, forget about it, you'd need an angular resolution of a tenth of an arc second. And you'd have to do that while looking through the "twinkle" effect of the atmosphere. You'd have a better chance of getting Barbara Streisand to offer George Bush the "Macy's Window Option"!!!

Boot

[Fred Mertz]

Poohbah, based on your replies on other threads to my questions about viewing the damage from afar, you implied that it would be difficult to do, but you didn't say that it was impossible did you?

And your comment about 6 inches of resolution, is that based on distance from the focal point?

[G Larry]

"Took pictures of the underside of the wing."????

From where, with what?
Weren't no spacewalks or CANDU arms!!!

[DittoJed2]

Sheesh folks. I hadn't seen the debunking article. I'll go away now already!

[KarlInOhio]

This is a picture of the top of the front wall of the cargo bay. This llink contains a complete debunking of this picture being a wing.

The entire video this frame is from is here: http://home.earthlink.net/~sigma90/israelrebut.mpg. It shows a picture of earth which is then zoomed back to show this picture. It then pans from the front cargo bay wall to the left cargo bay door and lab in the cargo bay, and then pans up to show the tip of the left wing, tail, and front of engine housing.

This picture is taken from the video and had its brightness adjusted. The earth is overexposed in that part of the video so they photoshopped it to make the earth darker and a little bluer. That's what gives the yellow grainy view to what otherwise appears light gray in the video.

What looks like cracks are seams in the overlapping insulation attached to that wall. It is inside the cargo doors on reentry.

[mhking]

Came up yesterday with a photo.

That's not the wing - it's part of the wall inside the cargo bay.