The muddy waters of the James, York, and Rappahannock rivers are evident here. This image was taken as the orbiter was flying in a tail-down and payload bay "into the wind" orientation. This may have been a transitional orientation since flying with the open payload bay into the direction of travel makes both the contents of the bay and the precious thermal radiators just inside the bay doors vulneable to collision with meteorites and other space debris. The preferred orientation is wing "into the wind" which greatly reduces potential damage to the orbiters engines, the cockpit, and the critical thermal tiles on the bottom.