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Astronauts inspect gash on Endeavour |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Sunday, 12 August 2007
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 Maneuvering a laser-tipped boom designed for the job, astronauts closely inspected a gash to shuttle Endeavour's belly Sunday, providing 3-D images that NASA hopes will rule out the need for risky spacewalk repairs. A chunk of insulating foam smacked the shuttle at liftoff last week in an unbelievably unlucky ricochet off the fuel tank and carved out the gouge.
The unevenly shaped gouge — which straddles two side-by-side tiles and possibly the corner of a third — is 3 1/2 inches long and just over 2 inches wide. The laser survey will determine its depth, crucial information for mission managers who must decide whether to send two astronauts out to fix the difficult-to-reach area.
That decision is expected Monday. The likelihood of repairs lessened after NASA discovered late Saturday that foam hit the shuttle and not denser, more damaging ice as previously suspected.
"Thanks to the whole crew for doing a great job of the data taking," Mission Control told the astronauts once the three-hour inspection ended. "People have a lot of analysis to do now."
The thermal tiles in the damaged area, near the right main landing gear door, are just over an inch thick. Even if the tiles are penetrated all the way, they're right above the aluminum framework for the right wing, which would offer extra protection against the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry at flight's end.
This area is subjected to as much as 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry. A hole, if large and deep enough, could lead to another Columbia-type disaster.
Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan - who was the backup for Challenger's Christa McAuliffe in 1986 -conducted the slow and painstaking survey, along with crewmate Tracy Caldwell. They used the 100-foot robotic arm and extension boom that flew up on Endeavour, steering the instrument to a spot just above the gouge and keeping it hovered there.
Laser sensors and cameras zoomed in on the damage, white and easily visible against the black tiles, from a variety of views.
Four other damaged areas also were scanned. Engineers believe the piece of foam struck the shuttle's underside, creating the big gouge, then skimmed along the bottom and nicked it in at least three spots.
The foam came off a bracket on the external fuel tank 58 seconds after Wednesday's launch, fell down onto a strut on the tank, then bounced up, right into Endeavour's belly. Ice apparently formed before liftoff near the bracket, which helps hold the long fuel feed line to the tank, and caused the foam to pop off when subjected to the vibrations of launch, said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team.
It's possible some ice was attached to the foam, which would have made the impact even harder. The debris that came off is believed to have been grapefruit-sized.
These brackets have lost foam in previous launches, a concern for NASA, Shannon said.
The inspection consumed much of the astronauts' day. On Monday, two of them will go back out for the second spacewalk of the mission to replace a broken gyroscope at the international space station.
Endeavour has been docked at the space station since Friday. It will remain there until Aug. 20 for a record 10-day stay. Mission managers on Sunday approved the prolonged visit based on the successful testing of a new power transfer system flying on Endeavour. The system is drawing power from the station and converting it for use aboard the shuttle.
On the space station, meanwhile, two cosmonauts continued repairs to a Russian computer system that failed during shuttle Atlantis' visit in June. Condensation from an air conditioning unit apparently is collecting behind the panels where the computer equipment is located.
And a U.S. command-and-control computer that shut down during Saturday's spacewalk was working again on Sunday.
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