Air Force imagery confirms Columbia wing damaged
“High-resolution images taken from a ground-based Air Force tracking camera in southwestern U.S. show serious structural damage to the inboard leading edge of Columbia’s left wing, as the crippled orbiter flew overhead about 60 sec. before the vehicle broke up over Texas…”
I was wondering if we had satellite and ground tracking cameras trained upon the shuttle. I figured it would be a matter of time until we found out. These guys track every single object in our orbit right down to things the size of a pop can. I would imagine that they were tracking STS-107 too.