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Inspecting a Gouge on Endeavour's Belly

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Department: 
The Space Shuttle
Teaser: 

"Astronauts on shuttle Endeavour took a closer look at their shuttle's heat shield Saturday to inspect a gouge."

Link: 

Endeavour Astronauts Inspect Divot on Space Shuttle's Belly

Source: 

SPACE.com Download time: May 21 2011 9:08 AM ET

Space shuttle Endeavour's astronauts performed some early morning robotic arm work Saturday (May 21) to take another look at a small gouge in their spacecraft's tile-covered underbelly.

NASA managers ordered the so-called "focused inspection" to obtain extra data required to clear any doubts over damaged tiles and confirm that Endeavour's heat shield is safe for the spacecraft's return through Earth's atmosphere at the end of its 16-day mission to the International Space Station.

"There's nothing alarming here and we're really not concerned," said NASA's chair of the shuttle mission management team LeRoy Cain on Friday. "This is one that we feel pretty confident we're going to be able to clear once we get some higher fidelity data."…

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