Columbia Wing Damage

[Guest Barney1]

Check out this story found under the "Imagery Confirms Wing Damage" link.http://www.spaceflightnow.com/

[greggerm 312]

Although the article doesn't mention the sources (other than people "close to the investigation"), it is a very compelling document.I recall seeing reports of these photos on either this site or the "other" site a few days ago, but at that time there wasn't any mainstream publication mentioning them. Aviation Week & Space Technology has, to the best of my knowledge, been a publication of good repute. I'm sure they wouldn't want to ruin that reputation. In a way I hope these photos are real, because I want the investigators to have all the possible information they can. It's a little saddening to read that the shuttles fate may have been written days in advance of the breakup. But, presuming these photos exist, we still do not know if the damage was incurred during takeoff or possibly earlier in the reentry phase. -Greg

[Guest Barney1]

You quote seeing reports of such photos a few days ago. This particular report that I have mentioned isn't to do with previous photos of the wing.....those previous photos were dismissed as being in fact, focused towards the rear of the cargo bay. That is, if we are talking about the same photos. :-)The report I linked to above, to my understanding, is "fresh" news and has no doubt got NASA, and perhaps USAF, in a bit of a dither because I'm sure they would rather that the public remain unaware of the photo(s) and the existence of the capability to take such photo; at least until the investigation is complete.

[Guest DNelson]

Here's a link to the full Aviation Week story:http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/chan...uttle2_news.xmlAnd yes, Aviation Week is a reliable publication. I've been waiting for their take on this. I've been largely ignoring the popular press this week since bad information is worse than no information at all.Dan

[greggerm 312]

Actually, the report I previously saw was that a USAF installation in either Tempe, AZ or somewhere in New Mexico had hi-res photos that were being kept secret - at least kept from the public until NASA could have a look. That was back in the middle of this week. I was personally very skeptical of that report, only because there wasn't any mention of sources or otherwise... it just looked sketchy. But maybe it's going a little more public now. I do recall seeing the "fake" wing crack photos in a different thread. Either way, I hope the photos shed some more light on this dark mystery,-Greg

[Tabs 2,790]

I wonder when/if they'll make the photos availiable. I'm interested to see the wing damage and also to see exactly what our best ground based optics are capable of producing image wise...

[Guest Edam]

If you want to see what some less than intelligent people are doing, (not the posters) take a look here:http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=13639

[Guest]

NASA's briefing on NASA-TV has shown the image in question a few times (the briefing is still in progress as I write this).Its not a good picture to say the least - but it might indeed show something. Ron is saying that its a very poor picture and hasn't shown NASA anything of value to date... He say they're organizing better image experts to evaluate the picture - but again, nothing of value has come of it yet.BTW: here's the link to live NASA-TV for broadband users (290kbps) if you want to watch the briefings every day - among other things:mms://wmevent9.adns.dal.yahoo.com/nasa300kUse Windows Media Player to view - copy the above line and paste it in WMP's File-Open URL dialog.Take care,Elrond