After Rock-Star Welcome, a Nagging Question

Barbara Morgan has taken pains to redirect the limelight that follows her every move to her crewmates, her trainers, other teachers and especially to children. But there was no escaping the paparazzi-class welcome she received upon boarding the International Space Station on Friday.

With the station’s three crewmembers gathered in welcome and with five of her own shuttle companions already aboard, Barbara floated through the hatch to find an orbital paparazzi in waiting. Between flashes of light bulbs, the astronauts swarmed around each other angling for the best shot of Barbara’s entrance into the station’s Destiny module.

It was over almost as quickly as it started, the crew keenly aware of how much work lies ahead. The job list grew even longer, with another inspection of the shuttle’s heat shield now scheduled for Sunday after engineers discovered a small gouge in one of the ship’s protective tiles.

NASA has been scrupulous about checking for heat shield damage since losing shuttle Columbia and seven astronauts on Feb. 1, 2003. The shuttle had been hit by a piece of foam insulation that fell off the fuel tank during liftoff. The wedge broke heat panels on Columbia’s left wing and as the ship attempted to fly back through the atmosphere for landing, it was torn apart.

The damage on Endeavour may prove to be harmless, but NASA won’t know until it determines the gouge’s depth. The damage is believed to have been caused by a piece of ice that formed on the outside of the shuttle fuel tank before or during launch. The tank can form ice and frost because the propellants it holds to feed the shuttle’s main engines during the climb to orbit are well below freezing.

If engineers determine Endeavour’s heat shield is not safe for the journey back to Earth, spacewalking astronauts could patch the damaged tile during one of the three or four spacewalks planned during the flight.