Endeavour Testing Could Show No Repairs May Be Needed
Like the ship from which it was named in the 1700s, the Endeavour has proved insurmountable against all odds. With only three years left to complete 11 space station missions before its retirement, the object is to spend as little and get as much freight delivered to the ISS as possible but not at the expense of lives.
Avoiding danger to the astronauts has always been a top NASA priority, with the statistics of losing one about one out of every 100. Already astronaut Rick Mastracchio had to cut short his spacewalk after a hole in his glove was noticed which penetrated the two outer-layers in the thumb area. Experts said he was never in any danger, but his spacewalk was cut short for safety reasons.
The small but deep tear on a couple of Endeavour’s belly tiles may need to be repaired, which could add on even more days to the already extended time frame of 14 days. After spending over a week on inspections and testing of the rips, NASA is now getting ready to decide what to do about any risky spacewalk repairs. It is quite possible that any decision making about the Endeavour repairs will have to wait until Thursday, with the repair job to possibly be done on Friday’s spacewalk or one on Saturday to allow time that is more specialized. But either way, the Endeavour testing could show that no repairs may be needed before its re-entry, instead of in outer space.
The tear is approximately 3 1-2 inches long by 2 inches wide, and was caused by some sort of debris striking it during the Endeavour’s launching. Located in two of the thousands of tiles on the spacecraft’s belly, they are an important aspect as they guard against the 2,000-degree temperature for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. The tear cuts completely through the tiles, which expose the final thermal barrier, made of a thin felt fabric. A limit of 350-degrees is imposed by NASA for the aluminum of the ship’s frame. If too much heat affects the cut area, the aluminum structure underneath could be damaged to the point that time-consuming post-flight repairs would be required. In turn, the time involved and needed for the ISS construction would be delayed and future launchings.
When the area was tested by computer models, the temperature of the damaged area was at 325 degrees, which put the mission managers on a optimistic level, where no repairs were needed. Yet, they remained cautious overall, while believing that the re-entry would still allow the heat to skip over the damaged area. At the present time, the Endeavour and its crew are still planning on leaving Monday, landing on Earth two days later for possibly the much-needed repairs.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Space Agency News, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
