Endeavour mission hit by shuttle damage

WASHINGTON: NASA said it has detected an apparent gouge on shuttle Endeavour's heat shield during a routine inspection, after the orbiter docked with the International Space Station (ISS).

A piece of ice struck the shuttle shortly after Wednesday's liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, leaving what appears to be a three square inch gouge near the hatch of one of the shuttle's landing gears, a NASA official said.

Mission manager John Shannon told a news conference that NASA was trying to determine the extent of the apparent damage. "What this means, I don't know at this point," he said.

The possible damage was detected yesterday after ISS crew members took 296 pictures of the shuttle's underside while it performed a backflip during its approach to the station. The pictures were analyzed by NASA experts on Earth.

Astronauts on Sunday will use a camera attached to a robotic arm to closely inspect the area of concern, Shannon said.

The US space agency has carefully inspected the orbiter's protective thermal tiles in the missions that followed the shuttle Columbia disaster of February 2003.

Columbia's heat shield was pierced by a piece of insulating foam that peeled off its external fuel tank during liftoff, causing the shuttle to disintegrate into a ball of fire as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere. Seven astronauts died.

Endeavour brought to the ISS the first teacher in space and a new truss segment to expand the orbiting laboratory, which NASA considers a key part of its space exploration mission.