[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.

[Lady Jag]

Or could it be excessive heat affecting their image?

[1ofmanyfree]

To keep this photo in perspective, consider it was taken from Albuquerque looking toward Southern NM. Shuttle was moving from West to East. Rotate the original image 180 deg. to view from the correct angle keeping in mind you are looking up at the bottom which will tend to distort the symmetry slightly also.

[Wolfstar]

I believe the entire side was actually physically distorted/damaged. Peel-off of large sections of that wing is consistent with the videos and stills taken from California to Texas prior to the catastrophic explosion that tore the shuttle apart. Pieces that were very large relative to the size of the shuttle can be seen breaking off. The reason I point out the relative size is because the pieces were too large to be just one or a few tiles.

I don't think there's any question that left wing started coming apart as it met resistance from earth's atmosphere. The only reason the shuttle didn't fall straight out of the sky immediately upon the breakup of the wing, as a plane would, was its velocity.

Now as to what the root cause of the structural failure of the wing was, it's going to be exceedingly difficult to determine. The foam debris may or may not be the root cause. Could be just a coincidence. If it is the root cause, it must have done a heck of a lot more than just damage a few tiles on liftoff.