Avatar Posted by BlogMarker 509 days ago (http://www.nytimes.com)
Category: Science Discovery Environment | Tags: nasa rules repair gouge shuttle
Convinced that a small gouge in the belly of the space shuttle Endeavour poses no danger, NASA managers decided last night not to send astronauts on a spacewalk to repair it.

Astronauts will proceed with previously planned work on the International Space Station, including a spacewalk scheduled for tomorrow. The Endeavour will return to Earth next week. Landing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Engineers had spent days scrutinizing photographs, running computer simulations and conducting experiments to predict what would happen to the gouge area as searing gases flowed along the shuttle’s underside during re-entry. While the heat would erode some of the tile, they concluded that there was no danger of the gases’ burning through the skin or even causing damage to the underlying aluminum structure.

“We don’t clear anything until we have the data to clear it,” John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, said last night at a news conference.
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