107 cameras to scrutinise Discovery launch

NASA will use a total of 107 cameras to investigate space shuttle Discovery for any kind of damage during its launch. The cameras will be installed around the launch pad and at distances of six to sixty kilometers away, as well as on two airplanes which will film and photograph the orbiter's first two minutes of ascent.

Lenses will also be mounted on the shuttle itself, its two booster rockets and external tanks, in order to see whether ice of pieces of insulation foam fall off and damage Discovery during the launch.

Hundreds of high-resolution images of the orbiter, its external tanks and its rocket boosters will be taken just before the launch so that scientists can compare "before" and "after" shots, he told reporters Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center.

More details at Physorg