For a few hundred dollars, inexpensive tiny TV cameras viewable on any
nearby PC can fly attached to the exterior of the shuttle. Flown into
orbit they could be used to examine the hull's integrity. Launches do
not encounter conditions which would disable electronic cameras
(unlike re-entries). They are so inexpensive that multiple cameras
(20 or 30) could be deployed prior to re-entry and a computer
composite composed from their images (most of which would not have the
shuttle in them) for careful analysis. Encountering no air
resistance, cameras would accompany the shuttle until it changed its
velocity vector. This would allow plenty of time to examine the hull
for launch or other damage without exposing crews to routein
spacewalks. A passive system, you could "flush them down the toilet"
and out into space using them where they would be recaptured by the
atmosphere, thus posing no danger to subsequent missions.