from: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0409shuttle-investigation09.html
Shuttle photo request unfilled
Traci Watson
USA Today
Apr. 9, 2003 12:00 AM
HOUSTON - Ten days before space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it tried to return to Earth, dozens of NASA engineers collectively asked that pictures be taken of the shuttle's damaged left wing. But the photos were never taken, former astronaut Sally Ride said Tuesday at public hearings on the accident.
The engineers decided to make the request because of a chunk of insulation that hit Columbia's left wing Jan. 16, as the spacecraft blasted off.
The information raises new questions about how well NASA and its contractor Boeing assessed the damage. It also indicates that engineers were not as sure about the shuttle's safety as the agency has said.
NASA officials have repeatedly said that, based on a Boeing evaluation, they felt reasonably certain that the debris hit did not pose a danger to the shuttle.
During Columbia's descent through the atmosphere Feb. 1, a stream of super-hot gases penetrated the vehicle's left wing. That eventually led to the disintegration of the spacecraft and the death of its seven crew members. The insulation strike during liftoff is a major suspect in what caused the breach in the wing.
Dozens of engineers attended a meeting Jan. 21 about the insulation incident, five days after Columbia's launch. The concluding idea of the meeting was to request satellite imagery, said Ride, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the independent panel that will formally determine the cause of Columbia's destruction. "They made an attempt to go through a few different channels to get the imagery. Now the question is, why didn't that request make it up to the program managers and up into the system?"
There were several official and unofficial attempts to obtain photos or satellite images of the shuttle in space.
Ride said investigators are still determining why the requests were not filled. Miscommunication seems to be one reason, she said.
Another would be that some people "in the system that might not have appreciated the importance of the imagery, might not have appreciated what information it could give them," she said.