[Sacajaweau]

Got a feeling this is phoney. I believe NASA said there is no way the astronauts could view the damage. And why would they send a message to home rather than NASA.

I'm also sure the message would have to go through NASA.

I don't think the astronauts had a separate "road-runner" line hooked up for private e-mails. Do you??

[dasboot]

Yes. One of them was sending email to school kids around the country. Referenced in several news articles posted here.

[timestax]

Got a feeling this is phoney. I believe NASA said there is no way the astronauts could view the damage. And why would they send a message to home rather than NASA.

DITTO...they could not even see under wing, let alone take pics of it!!

[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.)

[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.

[HardStarboard]

>>> I believe NASA said there is no way the astronauts could view the damage. <<<

Agreed: from all I have read, there is no way that the astronauts could have viewed the wing from the habitat pod. Without going out into the payload bay they couldn't have taken a picture of the wing - and even then it would have required the arm (whatever they call it) to position the camera. And even then, they would only have been able to view the top of the wing; the damage was on the bottom.

This is probably the bogus picture from the Israeli newspaper surfacing again. That picture it turns out is a picture, not of the wing, but of the payload bay and the cracks are wires duct taped to the side of the bay. So much for "informed sources"! And we know Senators are some of the least informed!!

[El Gato]

Got a feeling this is phoney. I believe NASA said there is no way the astronauts could view the damage. And why would they send a message to home rather than NASA.

You are assuming the damage was on the bottom of the wing, the top is fairly visible from the cargo bay windows, and probably from the flight deck windows too. If they could see something, or thought the camera might see something, then it must have been on the top of the wing. The message could have been sent to his brother and to NASA of course. No need for either/or.

I'm also sure the message would have to go through NASA.

I don't think the astronauts had a separate "road-runner" line hooked up for private e-mails. Do you??

My understanding is that they do. The line of course would go through NASA servers, but that doesn't mean somebody at NASA would have to see it.

[PAR35]

I don't think the astronauts had a separate "road-runner" line hooked up for private e-mails.

There was a thread posted about their experimental internet connection posted on 12/31, but it got pulled after the crash. Here is the title of the thread that was pulled:
Internet beams out into space ( Even Nasa uses Linux! ) Since the AMs don't like it when pulled threads get re-posted, I'm not going to put up any text or links.