Endeavour Damage

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:20 pm

Well as vincent has pointed out here the launch wasn't so clean. And aparently there is a 3 inch gouge in one of the black underside tiles 4 feet away from the gear doors. Radar indicates one of the pieces of foam that shed was actually ice that hit the orbiter. The crew will be performing another indepth inspection of the area tommorow to see how serious the damage is and what if anything needs to be done to fix it or god forbid in worse case rescue the crew. They arent to the point of thinking crew rescue yet they are thinking tile repair however so we will see.

Pete Conrad Fan · Post by **Pete Conrad Fan** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:29 pm

OMG, I'll be sure to stay on top of this and keep them in my prayers.

Mercergl · Post by **Mercergl** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:56 pm

Ive heared that this damage is not as bad as some gashes the shuttle has landed with, but those were in the past, before anybody knew the extent of the danger that this damage poses. Hopefully this wont turn out to be a disaster.

rkolker · Post by **rkolker** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:05 pm

I don't remember which flight it was, but at least one shuttle has landed with fairly severe tile damage, down to the aluminum. The unknown question is how much was done on ascent, and how much on reentry? Was the tile down to aluminum before entry, or only after being subject to heating and dynamic pressure on entry? Also, where was the damage as compared to this flight?

I'm no expert, but I would not be comfortable bringing Endeavour home without doing at least some repair on the gash that's down to aluminum.