A pair of astronauts took a spacewalk Saturday to install a space station beam as engineers back on Earth scrutinised images of a disturbing gouge in the shuttle Endeavour's heat shield.
NASA is carefully studying a 3-inch gouge in shuttle Endeavour's heat shielding found Friday as the orbiter approached the International Space Station. Spacewalking astronauts may have to patch the divot in the thermal tiles near the right landing gear doors, an area that endures temperatures as high as 2,300 degrees during atmospheric re-entry.
Nasa says it detected a gouge in shuttle Endeavour's heatshield during a routine inspection as it docked with the International Space Station (ISS). A robot arm will be used on Sunday to inspect the 7.6cm square, spotted as the shuttle performed a backflip so images of its underside could be taken.
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.