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ISS013-E-79758 (11 Sept. 2006) --- A crewmember aboard the International Space Station took this picture with a handheld digital still camera as the Space Shuttle Atlantis performed a backflip as it was about 600 feet from the station during its approach. The flip, done on every shuttle mission, allows a full photographic survey of the shuttle heat shield to be taken by the station crew. This image from that survey shows much of the underside of the Atlantis from the nose toward the aft. A piece of protruding thermal tile gap filler that is under analysis by engineers can be seen on the "horizon" of the visible thermal protection tiles.
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