August 22, 2007— They looked like the two most popular Shuttle heat tiles on the planet. Astronauts, engineers, and NASA brass gathered underneath Endeavour following its successful landing at Kennedy Space Center. They all wanted a close-up look at the two damaged tiles that impacted Endeavour’s mission—and may impact Discovery’s.

NASA managers are meeting to try to come up with a plan to avoid the kind of foam insulation problem that gouged Endeavour’s belly, leaving a three inch hole reaching down to the felt lining between the tiles and the Shuttle’s aluminum hull. Launch engineers are delaying the process of connecting Discovery to its tank, just in case more modifications to the one hundred and fifty four foot tall tank are needed. Launch Director Mikle Leinbach says he has about five days worth of "pad" to the schedule. That means he can wait until maybe Sunday or Monday before the delays start eating into plans to launch Discovery in late October.

Engineers will also pry off the two damaged tiles to see if the heat of re-entry reached past the felt lining and to the aluminum surface of the underside of Endeavour’s right wing. I discussed the Shuttle landing and what’s next for NASA during NPR’s "Day to Day" with Alex Chadwick. Click on the link if you’d like to listen in.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13822652

One last thought on the damaged tiles. After seeing them through camera views during his time in orbit, Endeavour Commander Scott Kelly declared the gouge "underwhelming" when he saw it up close.

Photo courtesy of NASA