Cape Canaveral, Fla. – An astronaut’s ripped glove forced an early end to a spacewalk and added to NASA’s headaches Wednesday as shuttle managers put off a decision on whether to order risky repairs for a deep gouge on Endeavour’s belly.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration indicated it was close to wrapping up tests and would decide today whether repairs were needed.
The chairman of the mission management team told reporters that he remained “cautiously optimistic” repairs would not be needed, based on preliminary test results.
One of the astronauts who would attempt those repairs, Rick Mastracchio, had to cut his latest spacewalk short after he noticed a hole in his left glove.
The quarter-inch-long rip in the thumb penetrated only the two outer layers of the five-layer glove, and he was never in any danger, officials said. Nevertheless, he was ordered back inside as a precaution, and his spacewalking partner quickly finished what he was doing and followed him in.
NASA’s spacewalk office manager, Steve Doering, said he would not want to proceed with another spacewalk until the glove problem is better understood. He expected to gather more information over the coming day.
This is the second time in three shuttle missions that a glove has been damaged during a spacewalk at the international space station. Engineers are uncertain whether sharp station edges are to blame or whether it’s wear and tear.
John Shannon, the mission management team’s chairman, said the glove problem would not prevent him from ordering spacewalk repairs for the gouge.
The patching job on Endeavour, if approved, would be performed on the next spacewalk, now set for Saturday. That could keep Endeavour and its crew of seven at the space station at least an extra day.
The 3 1/2-inch-long, 2-inch-wide gouge is in two of the black tiles that cover Endeavour’s belly and guard against 2,000-plus-degree temperatures of re-entry.
The gouge is so small that NASA is not worried about a Columbia-type catastrophe at flight’s end. Rather, the concern is that if too much heat enters the crevice, the underlying aluminum structure might be damaged enough to warrant lengthy post-flight repairs. That, in turn, could lead to future launch delays.
