Photosynth updates its NASA pics with shuttle belly

[cro-man]

If you enjoyed the first round of Photosynth'd pictures of NASA shuttle Endeavor, you'll probably enjoy these. Taken in space by the crew of the International Space Station, the newly uploaded shots show off the underside of the space shuttle, which the Microsoft Labs team is touting as a "first-hand look at what you might see on a space-walk." Of course, when it comes to the underside of space shuttles, astronauts are usually inspecting these things for damage while hurtling hundreds of miles an hour above the Earth. You can do it from the comfort of your Web browser, assuming you're running Windows XP or Vista with a capable graphics card. Mac users are out of luck.

Endeavour Tiles

Prior to docking at the international space station (about 625 feet before docking), Commander Kelley of the shuttle Endeavour for STS-118 took the orbiter through a complete somersault so that the three space station residents could photograph the shuttle's belly. This procedure provides a camera view of the shuttle's often-nicked underside. These images are from that back flip process.

The images revealed tile damage, about 3 inches square. It appears to have been caused by ice that broke off the fuel tank a minute after liftoff.

For example, here you can see the damaged tiles in the bottom left corner of this image (a little below the right landing gear) as well as some more minor chips. Here we see the shuttle nose where the front landing gear emerges.

More: HERE

Edited August 21, 2007 by cro-man