re: I saw these images for the first time yesterday
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.
There's the two schools of thought that I've encountered. If I'm not mistaken, the orbiter's orientation is usually bay open to the Earth during normal operations. Those making the decision to look into this didn't think it was worth disrupting the crew's busy schedule. Either that or they did know that it could be a tough trip home.
Damn is right.