Off The Cuff

Endeavour Has Gouge On Underbelly

Posted by: From Arkansas in News And More Stuff on Aug 10 2007

Welcome back!

These days, the space flights are not being covered like they were when I was younger. In those days, the moon shots, the first man in space and all the exciting things that went with all that was broadcast on all stations. It was an amazing thing to watch history in the making. I saw the televising of the first American in space….Alan Shepard, who was also the fifth man to walk on the Moon. Those were such wonderful times.

Now, there is little coverage at all. We found the last space shuttle launch on Fox. No other networks bothered. This actually bothers me. I find these things to be exciting and awesome. However, they have become commonplace and, as such, they are no longer newsworthy…unless, of course, something goes wrong. What is so irritating is that it has to go wrong before there is much attention given.

Today, NASA discovered a gouge in the underbelly of Endeavour just after docking at the space station. They believe it was caused by the ice buildup that broke off the fuel tank at liftoff. This gouge is about 3 inches square. If it’s deep enough, the astronauts will have to patch it. No one wants what happened to Columbia to happen again. That mission was rocked with the deaths of the crew because of a piece of insulation that broke off at liftoff and slammed into the wing. Now, NASA has the crew carry patches for such things.

On Sunday, there will be an inspection by the astronauts to see if the gouge is very deep. If it is fixable, they will do a spacewalk sometime later. If it is not fixable, they will remain on the station with a two month’s supply of food and other items. In October, a rescue shuttle will arrive at the station.

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