Cool Teathered Images

All images are from NASA TV. Captured from NASA's captures of the images from NASA TV on February 25, 1996. Select what you'd like to see and enjoy... BUT, note that I am NOT in any way all that familiar with what the heck I am looking at!! Just assume I know nothing and say, "eww, look at those pretty pictures."

Image 1: This appears to be an image of the teather breaking away. Quite sad ya' know. (44398 Bytes)
Image 2: This is an image of the teather tower. I am not sure if this is before or after, and I don't understand this teather/tower combo. I thought the teather was just a thin toothpick thing? Perhaps the tower holds the unrealing unit of the teather away from the shuttle for accidents involving a teather break? (32207 Bytes)
Image 3: This is an image of the base of the teather tower. Both the base and the tower as present as well as what appears to be a cowling for one of the engines? (61738 Bytes)
Image 4: This is an image of the mid section of the tower. You can see 6 sections. (42037 Bytes)
Image 5: This is another image of the mid section of the teather tower. There are almost 14 sections showing. Part of the shuttle is blocking the photo, but I can't tell which part. (31110 Bytes)
Image 6: This is another image of the teather tower. It's a wider angle than the previous image, and you can see the top of the tower. Either the sattelite is at the top, or (what I think) is that the teatehr unreeling unit is at the top. (31604 Bytes)
Image 7: This is a composite image of illustrations of the Shuttle's relative position to the earth. Note the detail of the teathered sattelite in the illustrations (cool!). (46816 Bytes)
Image 8: This is another image of the relative position of the Shuttle to the earth. (47896 Bytes)
Image 9: This is a spectacular image of the base of the teather tower with 7 sections showing. Also, you can clearly see an engine cowling, the rudder, the earth, and some other stuff in the shuttle bay. (50413 Bytes)
Image 10: This appears to be an image from inside (??) the canister where the teather tower emerges. Two sections of the tower are visible. Note the ribbon-like cable flexed outward in each section. Imagine trying to design such a thing! (66757 Bytes)
Image 11: This is an ultra close-up image of a single section of the tower. I believe the tower broke at a joint similar to this one. (51382 Bytes)
Image 12: I don't know what I was thinking, I skipped image 12 instead of image 13. Is there no end to the madness?
Image 13: This is an image of two sections of the tower. It is a bit over-exposed. (50028 Bytes)
Image 14: This is an image of the top of the tower with 7 sections showing plus the top of the tower. Again, I don't know if that is where the teather begins, or not? (43459 Bytes)
Image 15: This is an image of the top of the tower. For a real close up, check out the next image! Only 1 section is visible in this image. (53981 Bytes)
Image 16: This is an ultra close-up image of the top of the tower. Same-ol' same-ol' on what it really is. (67534 Bytes)
Image 17: This is an image looking upward from probably the base of the tower. I bet it was taken with the same camera that took Image 10. (70415 Bytes)
Image 18: This appears to be an image of the teather moving away from the shuttle at the lazy pace of 100mph. Too bad :-( (28917 Bytes)