Trouble for STS 118

NASA has found a deep gouge in the protective, essential layer of heat resistant tiles on the underbelly of shuttle Endeavour, near one of the rear wheel wells. A baseball-sized piece of foam broke away from the external tank during launch and struck the orbiter. The agency has not yet decided whether fixing the gouge before the shuttle returns will be necessary.

In an odd twist of fate, Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup on the last mission of Challenger, was one of the operators of the remote manipulator arm as Endeavour's crew documented the damage to their spacecraft.

NASA has been especially concerned about damage caused by shedding foam since the loss of Columbia in 2003, and has redesigned the foam covering of the external tank to minimize foam coming off. It's fairly certain, though NASA has never shouted it from the rooftops, that there were nicks and gouges in earlier shuttle flights that no one knew about until after the shuttle had landed safely. This gouge may be in a less vital area, but don't expect the folks at NASA to roll the dice. They shouldn't.