The Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site (AMOS) site features large computer controlled telescopes located on top of the 10,000 foot (3,058 meter) extinct volcano Haleakala on Maui in Hawaii. AMOS takes images of many satellites and decided to take images of Columbia while it was in orbit with its infrared and optical cameras.
These infrared views of Columbia were taken on January 28, 2003 at 13:53 Zulu (8:53 a.m. Eastern) with a 12 foot telescope while Columbia was flying upside down for the Air Force MSTRS experiment. They were publicly released shortly after the accident.
These visible images of Columbia in orbit were taken on January 28th at 21:49 Zulu (4:49 p.m. Eastern) with a 5.2 foot telescope while Columbia was in its 'cold soak' attitude - pointing the belly away from the Earth and toward deep space to reduce the temperature in the wheel wells to ensure that the tires were at the correct temperature for reentry.
The AMOS team provided these enhanced contrast versions of their images to author Philip Chien for this book.
AMOS images provided by Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site.
Satellite tracking map generated by the author.
Home