# Anybody See That Picture of the Warp on the Shuttle's Wing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745 "2003-03-20T06:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745/1 "2003-03-20T06:07:49Z")
TLC aired a program tonight on space flight. I only caught part of it, but they showed a clip of _Columbia_’s left wing while the ship was in orbit and near the trailing edge of the wing was this huge concave section of the wing, that didn’t appear to belong there. Anybody know if this was a shot from its last mission and if that’s a “normal” condition for the wing in orbit? ---
**Author:** ![Reuben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745/2 "2003-03-20T08:11:30Z")
I saw a program on the Columbia disaster the other day and don’t remember anything like that. However I did Google this up : [http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/07/sprj.colu.wrap/](http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/07/sprj.colu.wrap/) Which is a pretty sad photo of it during descent. ---
**Author:** ![PRNYouth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PRNYouth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PRNYouth)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745/3 "2003-03-20T13:05:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*TLC aired a program tonight on space flight. I only caught part of it, but they showed a clip of _Columbia_’s left wing while the ship was in orbit and near the trailing edge of the wing was this huge concave section of the wing, that didn’t appear to belong there. Anybody know if this was a shot from its last mission and if that’s a “normal” condition for the wing in orbit? \*\* Not sure what you saw, but was it by chance anything similar to the pictures shown on [this Snopes page](http://www.snopes.com/photos/shuttle.asp)? If so, then as you can see there, it wasn’t what it appeared to be. Again, not sure this is anything like what you saw. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745/4 "2003-03-20T14:10:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PRNYouth \* > \*\*Not sure what you saw, but was it by chance anything similar to the pictures shown on [this Snopes page](http://www.snopes.com/photos/shuttle.asp)? > > If so, then as you can see there, it wasn’t what it appeared to be. > > Again, not sure this is anything like what you saw. \*\* That looks like the shot, but they made no claim as to their being cracks on the wing. The show’s scheduled to rerun on the 24th, and assuming that the war doesn’t change that I’ll try to catch it again. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745/5 "2003-03-20T18:15:47Z")
Did you read the Snopes article? The picture doesn’t show cracks on the wing because it’s not a picture of the wing. It’s the cargo bay. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745/6 "2003-03-20T21:07:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \* > \*\*Did you read the Snopes article? The picture doesn’t show cracks on the wing because it’s not a picture of the wing. It’s the cargo bay. \*\* Yeah, which is where I read about the crack claims. Like I said in my OP I didn’t catch the whole program and they were talking about the wing and showing a picture which to my memory looks similar to the one on Snopes, but might not have been. I’m gonna tape the show when it’s reran and see if that’s the image I saw or not. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-see-that-picture-of-the-warp-on-the-shuttles-wing/162745/7 "2003-03-20T21:14:16Z")
There’s a better picture here: [http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/002989.html#002989](http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/002989.html#002989)