Thanks for the ping. What's interesting is that the normal config is shuttle bay exposed toward earth, tail forward. If these photos show a different config it says four things. They had to reconfig to take the photos. NASA's plausible denial of knowing photos were taken is bogus. NASA has been lying about their initial assessments of the damage from the insullation. NASA's overall trustworthyness has just plumeted to that of Bill Clinton.
Is it SOP for the USAF to photograph all shuttle flights? If not, why was this flight photographed? Do they photograph only flights only if there is a USAF experiment or USAF equipment to be deployed?
Certainly the photos must of sufficient quality to be of use. Would the USAF would take pictures of Columbia if not directed to?
Unless of course we have "rogue" USAF personnel snapping pics. I've seen posts stating that any pics are, "of low quality", " of little use", "it can't be done", "they can't use them to determine damage".
Why would the USAF take any pics if that's the case?