BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — NASA engineers are trying to decide Thursday what should be done about a cracked tile and another piece of material that's sticking out of place on the cockpit of the space shuttle Endeavour.
The areas of concern were discovered as the shuttle was docking with the International Space Station. There is a piece of material sticking out near the cockpit window and a cracked tile above the cockpit.
Mission managers are trying to determine if the pieces will fly off while coming in for landing and strike the rudder, or other critical areas in the back of the shuttle.
Astronaut Stephen Robinson has been down this path before. On the first flight following the Columbia disaster, engineers noticed an index card-sized piece of material sticking out from between tiles in the heat shield. Robinson carefully plucked it out during a spacewalk.
Now with Robinson on board the space shuttle Endeavour, a very similar dilemma has occurred. A small piece of ceramic material is protruding just below the commander's cockpit window and NASA is debating what to do about it.
"If we deemed it necessary, it might be possible for us to go out there on a spacewalk and pull it out," deputy shuttle program manager Leroy Cain said.
Above the cockpit there is a problem with a tile. The tile had a fracture line that was repaired before lift-off, but that crack has since widened. However, NASA doesn't think a space walk would help in that situation.
"That would probably introduce more risk than the risk we would mitigate," Cain said.
The repair work is a long way from any airlock, but shuttle managers say it wouldn't be too hard to get to. They don't want to put the astronauts in danger and don't want to run the risk of accidentally bumping the shuttle and causing more damage.
"We have more questions than answers at this point," Cain said.
For now, the crew is moving ahead with attaching the newest modules to the space station with this mission's first spacewalk overnight.
Any precautionary measures won't be taken for a few more days if at all. Shuttle program managers say they have a few days to figure out what to do.
The astronauts may get an extra day in space. NASA was planning on having the astronauts return next Saturday night, instead, they may have enough fuel and supplies to come back next Sunday.