The space shuttle Endevour has undocked early and is heading home to avoid the possible threat of hurricane Dean hitting the US (people in New Orleans please take a vacation, the mountains are nice at this time of year).
Lets hope the damage inflicted to the heat shield at take off by falling foam is as trivial as NASA hope. One of the ceramic "tiles" was gashed (3cmx5cm) through to the heat resistant felt under it. Repairs they considered were painting the felt with heat resistant paint, filling the hole with heat resistant "goo" or total replacement of the tile, none of these have been considered necessary, (I wonder if this was the astronauts opinion or someone sitting in a comfy chair, coffee at hand playing with a computer). Personally I would have done all three !
There is no room for error, when Endevour begins its descent its commited for landing, there is NO posibility of it re-entering orbit to "patch" anything up.
The lives of seven souls are totally depend on this decision (what must be going through their minds when the descent starts?), lets hope tomorrow we are looking at the happy astronauts back on the ground...............and not another example of what happens when a heat shield fails.
Lets hope the damage inflicted to the heat shield at take off by falling foam is as trivial as NASA hope. One of the ceramic "tiles" was gashed (3cmx5cm) through to the heat resistant felt under it. Repairs they considered were painting the felt with heat resistant paint, filling the hole with heat resistant "goo" or total replacement of the tile, none of these have been considered necessary, (I wonder if this was the astronauts opinion or someone sitting in a comfy chair, coffee at hand playing with a computer). Personally I would have done all three !
There is no room for error, when Endevour begins its descent its commited for landing, there is NO posibility of it re-entering orbit to "patch" anything up.
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