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WORLD / America
NASA finds gouge on Endeavour's belly
Updated: 2007-08-11 07:52
This image made available Friday, Aug. 10, 2007 by NASA shows a white
gouge, bottom left, and scrapes against the black tiles on the underside
of space shuttle Endeavour.[AP]?
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA discovered a worrisome gouge on Endeavour's
belly soon after the shuttle docked with the international space station
Friday, possibly caused by ice that broke off the fuel tank a minute
after liftoff.
The gouge － about 3 inches square － was spotted in zoom-in
photography taken by the space station crew shortly before Endeavour
delivered teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan and her six crewmates to the
orbiting outpost.
"What does this mean? I don't know at this point," said John Shannon,
chairman of the mission management team. If the gouge is deep enough, the
shuttle astronauts may have to patch it during a spacewalk, he said.
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On Sunday, the astronauts will inspect the area, using Endeavour's
100-foot robot arm and extension beam. Lasers on the end of the beam will
gauge the exact size and depth of the gouge, Shannon said, and then
engineering analyses will determine whether the damage is severe enough
to warrant repairs.
The gouge － white against the black tiles on the underside of Endeavour
－ is several feet from the starboard main landing gear door. It appears
to be the result of ice, although engineers are not positive; the damage
could have been caused by a piece of foam insulation that came off the
external fuel tank.
Radar images show a white spray or streak coming off Endeavour 58 seconds
after liftoff. Engineers theorize that if the debris was ice, it pierced
the tile and then broke up, scraping the area downwind. Pictures from
Friday's photo inspection show downwind scrapes.
Even though it was an extremely hot day in Florida, the fuel tank was
loaded with super-cold fuel, which could have allowed dangerously big
chunks of ice to form on its surface.
Shannon said it is uncertain how big the debris was. A 1.67-pound chunk
of foam led to Columbia's catastrophic re-entry in 2003.
Ice is heavier than foam, however, and would cause more damage.
In all, nine pieces of debris, mostly foam, came off the fuel tank during
Wednesday evening's liftoff, and three were believed to have struck the
shuttle. Shannon said further analysis of the photos from Friday's
inspection could uncover more damage.
Mission Control quickly notified the seven shuttle astronauts, including
Morgan, of the damage.
Commander Scott Kelly was at the controls when Endeavour performed the
orbital backflip earlier in the day so the space station crew could
photograph the belly and check for any damage.
While still 625 feet out, Kelly steered Endeavour through a complete
somersault so the three space station residents could photograph the
shuttle's belly. The 210-mile-high backflip － which lasted nine minutes
and spanned the entire Atlantic － has been standard procedure ever
since the Columbia disaster, providing a rare camera view of the
shuttle's often-nicked underside.
Space station astronaut Clay Anderson videotaped the backflip, while his
two Russian crewmates snapped furiously away on digital cameras equipped
with high-powered zoom lenses. Nearly 300 digital pictures were beamed
back to Earth.
Shortly afterward, Endeavour pulled up to the space station and neatly
parked as the two spacecraft soared above the South Pacific. The shuttle
will remain at the outpost for at least a week.
Morgan's entrance into the space station was dramatic, to say the least.
Her shuttle crewmates, all but one of whom floated in ahead of her,
resembled paparazzi as they photographed her coming through the hatch.
The station residents also captured the moment with cameras. She paused,
as the flashes popped, a video camera running in her right hand and
sunglasses pushed up on her forehead.
Morgan － who was Christa McAuliffe's backup for Challenger's tragic
mission in 1986 － briefly set aside her camera to hug the three space
station residents, then took more video of the crowded outpost. She plans
to use the video for educational events after the mission.
Endeavour is delivering several new space station parts, most notably a
2-ton square-shaped beam that will be hooked up to the orbiting outpost
on Saturday. The astronauts also will install a giant storage platform
for spare parts and a new gyroscope that will replace one that is broken.
For the first time, a docked shuttle will draw power from the space
station using a new system being tested by Endeavour. If the system works
as advertised, NASA will extend Endeavour's flight from 11 days to 14
days, allowing the shuttle to remain docked at the station for a record
10 days.
Of the 10 people aboard the joined spacecraft, Morgan is clearly the
attention-getter. The former Idaho elementary schoolteacher backed up
McAuliffe during Challenger's short-lived mission and was invited by NASA
into the astronaut corps 12 years later. The Columbia disaster further
delayed her trip into space.
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