Air Force imagery confirms Columbia wing damaged (with picture)

Space Flght Now ^ | 7 Feb 03 | CRAIG COVAULT

[Ichneumon]

The original image, an infrared view taken about a minute and 45 seconds before contact was lost with the shuttle at 8:59:22 a.m. ET Saturday, reveals a jagged edge on the front of the left wing, which sources told NBC News indicated severe damage.

...or severe heat plume. Since it's an infrared image, it would be hard to distinguish physical structure from hot air or plasma.

[ApesForEvolution]

That's a shuttle pic?

[gitmo]

[tall_tex]

But was it flying upside up or downside up? HuMMM....

BTW my ladies Yorkies love your wet food.....

[Lady Jag]

Thank you, we're whipping up a new batch now.

[Kay Soze]

Clearly one can determine from this photo of an alien space craft taken in China June 1942 that:

The eleven forward facing windows display the three clearly visible aliens are two and a half meters tall each weighing 86 kilos, also each is holding a beverage with unusual markings.

The markings indicate the craft is military in nature given the gamma ray tubes on the left portion of the "craft" and three banks of exhaust tubes running up underneath the craft...

[Dog Gone]

So what's that actually sticking out in front of the damaged wing surface, a pelican?

Granted, the wing looks distorted compared to the other wing, but not in a way that makes sense.

[Doe Eyes]

If I squint just right, I think I can see pieces of foam imbedded in the leading edge of the left wing.

[Doc On The Bay]

Somebody's probably mentioned this; 'suppose the "foam" was permiated or coated with water ice from condensation--wouldn't it change the "impact physics?"

Doc

[Chad Fairbanks]

So what's that actually sticking out in front of the damaged wing surface, a pelican?

Actually, I think THIS is a pelican...

[RightWhale]

what's that actually sticking out in front of the damaged wing surface, a pelican?

Since it appears to be an infrared image, it would be pixel spillover from a very hot [bright] spot on the wing. The streak following the wing would also be very hot air.

[Lady Jag]

When you look at the photos side by side, NASA's photo has the whole left (right in the photos) side distorted. Either the entire side was actually physically distorted/damaged or it is a problem with the photograph itself.

[abner]

During the NASA press conference today, Mr. Dittemore showed this photo and said that they haven't made any conclusions from it yet. He didn't seem really impressed with the photo at this point.

[Lady Jag]

Or could it be excessive heat affecting their image?

[RightWhale]

There has been a lot of talk of something coming off the fuel tank and striking the orbiter hard enough to cause fatal damage. The shuttle is about as strong as a can of beer at a frat party. I have been worried about this happening for about the past 30 years; every time the shuttle lands I think: another miracle has been done.

[bribriagain]

"The eleven forward facing windows display the three clearly visible aliens are two and a half meters tall each weighing 86 kilos, also each is holding a beverage with unusual markings.

I only count 10.

[Dog Gone]

I think it would be rather important to know whether or not this is an infrared image.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

It looks like a screen capture from the movie "What Monica Saw".

[Ramius]

No, this isn't the picture that the astronomer in San Francisco shot- this is from an Air Force ground based tracking facility, as per the article. Given the circumstances under which it was taken, it isn't too bad, and it does tell us things.

Understood. I think it is interesting, but it raises more questions as well:

-- The wingtips of the shuttle are not rounded. They are pointed. This photo seems to shows them rounded.

-- This shows a narrow, thin forward fuselage. I would think the shuttle profile is fatter.

-- Is this photo actually a photo-negative of a bright WHITE object, as the shuttle would appear on re-entry?

...questions like that.

[RightWhale]

impressed with the photo

If it's heavily into the infrared, it would show hot things as bright, or in this reversed spectrum image, as black. If something is hot enough, its image will burn [bad choice of words, probably] over into neighboring pixels. So the hot wing looks more distorted and jagged than it really was. Heat would weaken the metal until it got hot enough to melt and flow like water. That would be the end of the structure.