[Budge]

There must be a way to do in-flight photos to check for any damage.

[brityank]

I know there is, but the layers of bureaucracy and security will have to be knocked down first. I found the following shot at GRIN; someone else had a better one with an explanation of how it works. It should be standard on every manned flight and improved as technology indicates.

12/03/1997 -- Looking like he's playing with a high tech "soccerball" STS-87 Mission Specialists Winston Scott reaches out and retrieves the free-flying AERCam/Sprint (Autonomous EVA Robotic Camera).

I believe NASA also has a SR-71 that they have previously used to image a shuttle; I don't know if the image could be sharp enough to discern individual tiles and any damage, and obviously the lighting would be a big consideration. There are lots of military sats that have imaging capability that can resolve features to about six inches at ground level; but we'll never know if they could have detected misaligned RCC or small tile damage. Just my uninformed opinion.