Gouge Caused by Debris Spotted on Shuttle Wing

A piece of debris hit the underside of the space shuttle Endeavour during liftoff on Wednesday and gouged a small but potentially worrisome divot in a heat shield tile, NASA officials said yesterday.


Reuters/NASA TV
The Endeavour, after turning on Friday to let space station astronauts photograph its underside.
The gouge, spotted via images taken by the crew of the International Space Station as the Endeavour approached docking yesterday afternoon, is small, about three inches wide. Still, there were some visual indications that it might be deep.

“What does this mean?” John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, said at a news conference yesterday. “I don’t know at this point.”

Astronauts will conduct a closer examination on Sunday, using a laser tool attached to the shuttle’s robotic arm to measure its exact shape. Based upon that information, NASA engineers will analyze how much heat might reach the Endeavour’s underlying structure when the spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere.

If necessary, the astronauts could repair the damage during one of their planned spacewalks.