Q+A CENTER

The Discovery shuttle launch appeared flawless, but that was what the eye could see. What the eyes could not see was captured by an upgraded network of electronic imaging equipment on the ground, in chaser planes and onboard the craft while the shuttle was in flight.

The expansive imaging system is an interconnected network of cameras, which ranged from the infrared to the handheld digital, image processing tools and data delivery links to NASA computers.

• More than 100 cameras captured the launch and landing of the space shuttle Discovery.
• Inflight inspection was conducted with a series of cameras, lasers and data was downlinked to engineers on earth.
• Spacewalkers used a space-hardened digital camera to document damage to the shuttle.

Improving Launch and Data Imagery

The upgraded Ground Camera Ascent Imagery system did what it was intended to do. A Sony XC-999 camera, one of 107 ground- and aircraft-based cameras that fed back images and data to engineers at three NASA facilities, caught what NASA calls a "debris event."

The camera captured a piece of insulating foam that tore from the external tank about the time of solid rocket booster separation. This was a problem similar to the one that eventually led to the February 2003 destruction of the shuttle Columbia 16 days after takeoff. The chunk did not strike the Discovery, but was nearly as large as the estimated 1.67-pound piece of insulating foam that struck the Columbia.