Glitch in Endeavour's Heat Shield, Inspection On

The Endeavour space shuttle that took off earlier in the week, post a delay owing to a few technical snags faced yet another glitch when there was defect that was found in the space shuttle’s heat shield tile. The heat shield is an important component in a space shuttle, as it protects the space shuttle for extremely fierce temperatures that are characteristic of the shuttle’s return journey to the earth.

Better safe, than sorry!

The entire crew has now got down to detailed inspection of the same. Although members of Endeavour’s mission management team do not find this to be a cause of extreme worry, they aren’t entirely cutting down the possible implications, either. The catastrophic destruction of the space shuttle, Columbia was also triggered by a piece of debris that got stuck in the shuttle’s heat shield.

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Therefore, the astronauts will now conduct a focused inspection exercise to affirm the status of the tile damage.

Source: Space.com