CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The Columbia accident investigators urged NASA on Wednesday to provide better, quicker pictures of separating shuttle fuel tanks and the vulnerable underside of the spaceships' wings to check for potential damage from launch debris.
The latest recommendation -- the fifth to date -- precedes the investigation board's final report by one month.
"The space shuttle is still a developmental vehicle, and engineering data from each launch is essential to further understand the vehicle,'' the Columbia Accident Investigation Board said. "Since the total elimination of all sources of debris has not yet been achieved, a much better understanding of all the potential sources of debris is required.''
A 1 1/2-pound chunk of fuel-tank foam insulation slammed into the leading edge of Columbia's left wing during liftoff in January, producing a hole that allowed the superheated gases of atmospheric re-entry to melt the wing and destroy the spaceship.
Earlier this month, the accident investigators said NASA needs more camera angles and better filming of all future shuttle launches.
NASA botched the photography of Columbia's liftoff; the camera with the best view of the foam strike was out of focus.
In addition, pictures of Columbia's external fuel tank dropping away eight minutes into the flight could not be beamed down to Earth because cameras providing that view can be accessed only after the shuttle lands. The space agency planned to rush the film from these two exterior cameras to the developer as soon as Columbia touched down at Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 1, to pinpoint the location of the falling foam.
But Columbia never made it to Florida. It shattered over Texas and all seven astronauts were killed.
For Columbia's doomed flight, ``very little engineering quality, on-board imaging of the (fuel tank) was available," it said.
The investigators urged NASA to provide a capability to obtain and quickly beam down high-resolution images of the empty fuel tank dropping away.
The investigators also advised NASA to obtain and beam down during flight high-resolution images of the underside of the wing leading edges and the forward section of the wings' thermal protection system.
NASA has been reviewing its policies involving launch imagery since March. One option may be to equip each fuel tank with a video camera to transmit live pictures of the entire ride to orbit. One of these so-called shuttlecams flew aboard Atlantis last fall, but its view was obscured by debris on the camera when the booster rockets peeled away two minutes into the flight.
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