The Mission Management Team, which is in charge of Endeavour’s flight, also made an interesting judgment call. If there were an emergency that required the Shuttle to land immediately, mission control would likely do so with no attempt at repairs. The concern over damaged belly tiles is due to the three thousand degrees of heat generated by friction with the atmosphere during re-entry. It was fiery conditions like that that destroyed Columbia in 2003. Engineers say that the damage on Endeavour involves a spot on the underside of the right wing where there are no electronics, no structural supports, and no control cables that would be damaged in a "burn through". Not to put words in NASA’s word, but the message appears to be that Endeavour could land safely, even if there was a noticeable hole in the shuttle’s hull. Columbia, on the other hand, met the worst of re-entry in 2003. Super hot gases poured through the breech in the heat shield on the Shuttle’s left hand wing, which was broken by falling foam insulation from the external fuel tank. The blow-torch effect ate through the wing, aparently through the hydraulic lines that controlled the wing flaps, and out the left main landing gear compartment, blowing the tires along the way. Even if Columbia had survived the heat of re-entry, the lack of one set of main landing gear means the shuttle would have likely "pancaked" on the runway. NASA will study the situation on Endeavour before choosing a course of action. Photo courtesy of NASA
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August 11, 2007—The astronauts focused the cameras and lasers in their fifty-foot long boom extension at the three inch by three inch gouge in two of Endeavour’s belly tiles. This photo is of Endeavour, as taken by the crew of the International Space Station prior to docking. Engineers will study the video and data to try to get a three-dimensional image of the divot. Twenty fours worth of study has also uncovered new details behind the incident. Number one, NASA thinks it was foam insulation off the tank and not necessarily ice that hit the Shuttle.