CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: NASA was urgently calculating whether risky spacewalk repairs are needed after a close-up inspection revealed that a 3 1/2-inch-long gouge penetrates the thermal shielding on the shuttle's belly.
A chunk of insulating foam hit the Endeavour at liftoff last week in an unlucky ricochet off the fuel tank.
The unevenly shaped gouge — which straddles two side-by-side thermal tiles and the corner of a third — is 3 1/2 inches long and just over 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide. Sunday's inspection showed that the damage goes all the way through the 1-inch (2.5-centimeter)-thick tiles, exposing the felt material sandwiched between the tiles and the shuttle's aluminum frame.
Mission managers expect to decide Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, whether to send astronauts out to patch the gouge. Engineers are trying to determine whether the marred area can withstand the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry at flight's end. Actual heating tests will be conducted on similarly damaged samples.
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A chunk of insulating foam hit the Endeavour at liftoff last week in an unlucky ricochet off the fuel tank.
The unevenly shaped gouge — which straddles two side-by-side thermal tiles and the corner of a third — is 3 1/2 inches long and just over 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide. Sunday's inspection showed that the damage goes all the way through the 1-inch (2.5-centimeter)-thick tiles, exposing the felt material sandwiched between the tiles and the shuttle's aluminum frame.
Mission managers expect to decide Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, whether to send astronauts out to patch the gouge. Engineers are trying to determine whether the marred area can withstand the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry at flight's end. Actual heating tests will be conducted on similarly damaged samples.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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