STS35-38_v_c_o_TPMBK (ca. 1990, unnumbered NASA photo)
"Columbia, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 102, slated for mission STS-35, left, rolls past Atlantis, OV-104, on its way to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch pad 39A. OV-104, being readied for STS-38, is parked in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) following its rollback from the pad for liquid hydrogen (LH₂) line repairs."
While this made for a spectacular & rarely seen photo, it would've been much better for it to have never been the case.
The much more widely published/seen photo of the "conjunction":
images.nasa.gov/details/S90-46555
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/multimedia/atla...
Finally, this "head-to-head" comparison of orbiter vehicles nicely reveals Columbia's black "chines" on the upper surface of the shuttle's forward wing. These black areas were incorporated because the first shuttle's designers did not know how reentry heating would affect the craft's upper wing surfaces.
It can be seen to terminate in line with where the fly of the United States flag on the fuselage also terminates.
STS35-38_v_c_o_TPMBK (ca. 1990, unnumbered NASA photo)
"Columbia, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 102, slated for mission STS-35, left, rolls past Atlantis, OV-104, on its way to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch pad 39A. OV-104, being readied for STS-38, is parked in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) following its rollback from the pad for liquid hydrogen (LH₂) line repairs."
While this made for a spectacular & rarely seen photo, it would've been much better for it to have never been the case.
The much more widely published/seen photo of the "conjunction":
images.nasa.gov/details/S90-46555
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/multimedia/atla...
Finally, this "head-to-head" comparison of orbiter vehicles nicely reveals Columbia's black "chines" on the upper surface of the shuttle's forward wing. These black areas were incorporated because the first shuttle's designers did not know how reentry heating would affect the craft's upper wing surfaces.
It can be seen to terminate in line with where the fly of the United States flag on the fuselage also terminates.