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.
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