Tile damage spotted on shuttle’s underbelly

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 (7.5 centimeters) 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.

On Sunday, the astronauts will inspect the area, using Endeavour’s 100-foot (30-meter) 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 several small scrapes downwind of the biggest gouge.

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.

Orbital backflip
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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20210854/