The AerCam Sprint

When the astronauts go ro space aboard the Shuttle, all they can see is in front of them, above them and slightly to the left and the right. They can't see below them or in their back.
Once in orbit, they had to wait until STS7 to finally have a view of the Shuttle (but only its upper part).
Much later, they very rarely had a view of the underside, never of the back side (engines).
Isn't amazing NASA had never a good idea of what the entire shuttle looked like in space?
Because, even when a camera was located outside, the antenna had to be able to lock into it, which prevented some manoeuvres.

Such a camera could, for a future manned vehicle, have multiple uses:

At liftoff and all the way to orbit, attached to the spacecraft, it could show the crew and the launch control center and the world, what's going on around the rocket, aiming upwards, downwards, sidewise, it would provide us with great views of the way up.
Once in orbit (and when no engines are changing the spacecraft's trajectory), it could unlock itself an hover around the spacecraft, showing the crew and us what the spacecraft looks like from space.

When it's time to dock with a space station or another spacecraft, it could help with the docking manoeuvres.

When it's time to return back home, it would also help analyze the spacecraft's status just before re-entry (it could be re-entering Earth and burn after it had sent great images of the spacecraft's re-entry).

All those things could lead to another kind of argument: Knowing the windows add a lot of weight to a spacecraft, knowing this mobile camera can provide us and them with very good views from the spacecraft or outside of it, wouldn't that be an argument to design a spacecraft without windows?
Every astronaut would have a window (screen) on his laptop attached to his knee and if the robot has various cameras working simultaneously, he could look what's going on outside through different angles.

Of course, a space station, a spaceship should have windows but they're not that weight-dependant as a spacecraft going up and down to and from space.

The matter is to save weight, reassure the crew and inspire the world.

Raoul