Amazing shuttle images

Some of the photos of the external tank taken after separation have appeared on the NASA website. The shots are excellent, but they show that the large object which flew off the tank just after booster separation was a big chunk of foam from near the LOX transfer pipe. NASA have announced that because they thought they'd solved the problem, but apparently haven't, that they're grounding the shuttle fleet again. I think this is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. The problem is that this happens on every flight, but this time they had cameras to show it to them :-(
What's also amazing in this image is to see the burn pattern on the side of the tank which was created when the boosters detached 2 minutes into flight. The second pic is a closeup of the missing foam.





The Shuttle did at least dock safely with the space station today and before getting there, did an 8 minute backflip outside so the crew on the ISS could take photos of the underside of the orbiter. NASA only have one grainy picture on their site right now but I'm trying to find a better one.

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