Shuttle Crew Confident Heat Shield Safe for Landing

HOUSTON -- Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Endeavour are confident in the decision not to patch a small gouge in their orbiter's heat shield before leaving the International Space Station (ISS), the spaceflyers said Friday.

NASA mission managers decided late Thursday to forgo a risky spacewalk repair to fill in a 3 1/2-inch (nine-centimeter) divot in the heat-resistant tiles on Endeavour's underbelly.

"We agree absolutely 100 percent with the decision to not repair the damage," shuttle commander Scott Kelly told reporters Friday via space-to-ground video link. "We were certainly concerned that if we did the repair, we could potentially cause more damage to the underside of the orbiter."

A baseball-sized piece of tank foam weighing 0.021 pounds (about one-third of an ounce) bit into two of Endeavour's fragile tiles just aft of the orbiter's right landing gear door during its Aug. 8 launch. After nearly a week of intense scrutiny and tests, mission managers concluded that the ding in the 1.12-inch (2.8-centimeter) thick tile posed no risk to Endeavour or its astronaut crew.

"I don't think it's really an issue, and I think it was a great decision," Endeavour pilot Charlie Hobaugh said of the tile damage.

Shuttle mission managers said Friday that they are watching the developing Hurricane Dean in the Caribbean Sea and preparing for the chance the storm swing in towards Houston after its anticipated arrival in the Gulf of Mexico last week. Among those options are landing Endeavour a day earlier than its Aug. 22 target, or keeping the spacecraft in orbit a bit longer.

"It would certainly be a long day," Kelly said of undocking Endeavour from the ISS early, adding that his crew would be ready if required to do so.

Mission going well

Now well into their ninth day in space, Endeavour's STS-118 astronauts were busy moving cargo between their shuttle and the ISS as they worked alongside the station's Expedition 15 crew.

Leading the cargo transfer is teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, an Endeavour crewmember who first joined NASA in 1985 as the backup to Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe prior to the Challenger tragedy. True to her teacher role, she has performed several educational events with students on Earth, the last of which slated for Sunday.

"I think the best lesson is that this is truly a marvelous place," Morgan said. "The station is incredible."

STS-118 spacewalker Dave Williams, a veteran Canadian Space Agency astronaut, added that humanity's impact on Earth is readily apparent from his perch in Earth orbit, with water pollution and fires easily visible to the naked eye.

"All of this reminds you that the planet is in fact a very small place and all of us here on Earth need to develop a sense of planetary stewardship," Williams said.

NASA is broadcasting Endeavour's STS-118 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for mission updates and SPACE.com's NASA TV feed.

• VIDEO: STS-118 Mission Profile: SPACEHAB
• VIDEO: Endeavour Shuttle Tile Damage
• Complete Space Shuttle Mission Coverage