I don't know when they were released but I missed them at the time. They are several images of Columbia taken on Jan 28, 2003, just a few days before the vehicle was destroyed. The images were taken by the AMOS 3.67 meter telescope operated by the Air Force on Maui. These images are pretty small (I saw larger versions) but as you can see, they're quite detailed. The thing that really struck me was that all of the images were of the Shuttle's top. It seems no one thought to look at the underside of Columbia. The resolution is high enough that they may have been able to see the damage.

Here's a link to one of the IR images in a larger size. The image I saw was a lot sharper.

Even if they knew of the damage, I'm not certain what they could've done about it. Still, that knowledge might've given them time to evaluate some options.

Damn.