NASA orders shuttle home one day early
Updated: 2007-08-19 09:07
The spacewalkers' gloves, meanwhile, held up just fine. The previous spacewalk was cut short after one astronaut ripped his glove. As a precaution, Williams and Anderson frequently checked their gloves and stayed clear of sharp edges.
"My gloves look like they just came off the showroom floor," Anderson said as the spacewalk ended.
NASA's hurricane deliberations followed a decision to forgo shuttle repairs.
Late Thursday, mission managers concluded that a deep gouge on Endeavour's belly posed no Columbia-like threat to the seven crew members during re-entry and also would not lead to lengthy postflight shuttle repairs. For a week, managers had considered sending two astronauts out with black protective paint and untested goo to patch the 3 1/2-inch-long, 2-inch-wide gouge that dug all the way through the thermal tiles.
The gouge was caused by debris that broke off a bracket on Endeavour's external fuel tank during liftoff Aug. 8. Engineers still do not know whether it was foam insulation, ice or a combination of both. In any case, NASA said it will not launch another shuttle until the longtime troublesome brackets are fixed.
Endeavour's crew includes teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who was Christa McAuliffe's backup for Challenger's tragic 1986 flight.
The space station's commander, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, was sorry to see his shuttle guests leave early.
"Unfortunately, it's too quiet on station now," he told Mission Control, "and we are like alone."
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