View Full Version : NASA Finds Gouge on Endeavour's Belly
KC9ECI
08-10-2007, 11:25 PM
Quote[/b] ]CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- 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.
Link (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPACE_SHUTTLE?SITE=WILAC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
Wonder if this means the first ever Rescue in Space? All I know, if I was one of those astronauts, I'd be somewhat or severely worried after what happened to the last shuttle and crew.
K2WH
n0jaa
08-11-2007, 01:41 AM
NASA calls it a "dent." Their theory is it was caused by a chunk of ice.
kg4kww
08-11-2007, 04:43 AM
Hope it can be repaired.
n6hcm
08-11-2007, 08:15 AM
they seem to find a lot of these now. what i wonder about: have all the shuttle missions suffered from similar damage on earlier flights ... the shuttle flew for ten years before the challenger incident, and then five more years before the columbia incident ... surely all these flights didn't leave the vehicles unscathed?!?
w2amr
08-11-2007, 09:05 AM
Quote[/b] (n6hcm @ Aug. 11 2007,01:15)]they seem to find a lot of these now. #what i wonder about: have all the shuttle missions suffered from similar damage on earlier flights ... the shuttle flew for ten years before the challenger incident, and then five more years before the columbia incident ... surely all these flights didn't leave the vehicles unscathed?!?
Ah, AG huh? Congrats Henry.
wa4brl
08-11-2007, 08:27 PM
N6ACM asks:Quote[/b] ]What i wonder about: have all the shuttle missions suffered from similar damage on earlier flights?
From the very first shuttle flight, the vehicle has been plagued by tiles falling off or being damaged by the rigors of the launch phase. #Fortunately, most of this damage has occured in areas that were not too critical to a safe re-entry. #It does cause localized damage to structures near the tile problems, but (excepting Columbia's ruptured leading edge) not severe enough to prevent a safe landing. #See reference to such problems on the very first shuttle flight HERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-1). (scroll down to the "Mission anomalies" header). #
All damaged structures and tiles must be repaired or replaced in the vehicle refurbishment that occurs after each flight. #The shuttles are not suffering any more damage now than when they were new. #Indeed, they probably fare better now than before due to new safety-driven procedures. #It's just that since the Columbia disaster NASA and the news media tell us more about it.
The Shuttle Thermal Protection System (STPS) is the amazing development that made the reuseable space vehicle a reality. #But it is not all peaches and cream. #We must remain aware of how very delicate and brittle these low-density tiles are. #At the start, NASA had no idea that it would require so much maintenance. #STPS maintenance remains the single most labor-intensive undertaking in returning shuttle orbiters to flightworthiness.
It's one of the many reasons that each shuttle flight costs us between 500 million and 1 billion dollars.
N0WVA
08-11-2007, 08:45 PM
Space flight has a lot of barriers to overcome, much more than terrestrial transportation. For this reason it will always be very dangerous, no matter what kind of vehicle is used.
Wear your seatbelts.
w2amr
08-11-2007, 10:29 PM
Quote[/b] (KC9ECI @ Aug. 10 2007,16:25)]Quote[/b] ]CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- 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.
Link (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPACE_SHUTTLE?SITE=WILAC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
Maybe the door came off the beer fridge.
ka5piu
08-12-2007, 12:30 AM
Hello.
It's the damn Martians again! they leave the intergalactic-mart carts out all the time!
K8MHZ
08-12-2007, 12:35 AM
Quote[/b] (n0jaa @ Aug. 10 2007,13:41)]NASA calls it a "dent." #Their theory is it was caused by a chunk of ice.
It's probably space junk. The environmentalists haven't figured out that we shouldn't trash near Earth space yet. Either that or it's just too hard to stage a demonstration in space yet...