In the USENET newsgroup sci.space.shuttle, a poster (referred to here as "Mr. W") claims to have found photographic evidence of RCC leading edge damage from an on-orbit STS-107 photograph. After careful consideration of Mr. W's presentation, I have concluded that the evidence does not support his claim. These pages will present the case against Mr. W's claim.
Here is a link to the original NASA STS-107 image that Mr. W claims shows evidence of RCC damage. It is not necessary to download this image to follow along in these pages. I only include the link here for completeness. The image file is rather large (944 KB). I will show a lower resolution version of this image on a later page.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-107/hires/s107e05359.jpg
In Figure 1, below, Mr. W has highlighted the two features that he believes indicate RCC damage. The first feature is the "gap" in the white line along the RCC leading edge. The second feature is what Mr. W believes is a "gash" in the RCC. Mr. W has bracketed this "gash" by two red lines.
Figure 1.