Think it was more a security issue, paragraph from the net

To give you an idea of how solidly opinion turned, one flight controller arranged for the Air Force to use imaging systems to take a picture of the Shuttle. Having done similar things, I can attest that took hours of work and more than a fair bit of paperwork (submitted electronically over secure channels) to make that happen. When Linda heard that was happening, she put an end to it, and contacted the commander on the Air Force side to apologize. The concern was that neither side wanted low-level operations personnel to be using precious secret Air Force assets without proper authorization, and it was an embarrassment to NASA that a proper procedure wasn't in place to request that sort of assistance. Linda reassured the commander that NASA would work with them before the next flight, to develop a proper procedure to get pictures taken if there was a serious problem. Most of us agree that the pictures would have shown fatal holes in the wing leading edge...what we'd have done after that is a matter of speculation.

Posted By: littletinyphil, Mar 1, 15:08:51