The Space Shuttle Columbia arrives in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) at Kennedy Space Center on 25 March 1979. Note the numerous missing Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles throughout the shuttle. Several thousand tiles had not been installed yet.
NASA
2012-11-07 21:03:58
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/566175main_columbia-opf.jpg">http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/566175main_columbia-opf.jpg</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/opf_home.html">https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/opf_home.html</a>