To: Mr. Finnbar: I don't agree with you assessment of spy optics
Imagery science has certainly advanced a lot further than the days of the first shuttle by NASA. (1981: Columbia's first flight: http://billnelson.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?d=244193& )
The first one lost about 5,000 of the approximately 24,000 tiles on the fuselage/wings/empennage and NASA used the Mauna Loa/Hilo look-up telephoto abilities to enumerate which ones were missing. The short blurb of that ability..and remember that this was quite a few years ago...was quashed almost as fast as it was broadcast. But...NASA could see the ablating tiles that were ultimately 6 inches by 5½ inches in size.
That's impressive for the date. Imagine what they CAN see today.