spacetoday.net: NASA investigating shuttle tile repair technologies

Posted: Tue, Feb 25, 2003, 8:49 AM ET (1349 GMT)
NASA is looking at ways future space shuttle crews could repair damaged tiles while in orbit, several publications reported Tuesday. NASA officials said they were looking at techniques ranging from visual inspections of the shuttle by the International Space Station crew to repairs conducted by astronauts or the station's robot arm. Currently tiles on the shuttle cannot be repaired in-orbit because the shuttle lacks any kind of tile repair kit; moreover, astronauts cannot reach many portions of the shuttle, including the orbiter's vulnerable underside. The reports come after indications that at least some shuttle engineers were concerned that the shuttle Columbia had sustained some damage to its tiles during its January 16 launch. Even if the engineers could confirm that the tiles were damaged, there was little, if anything, the shuttle crew could have done to repair the damage or otherwise mitigate the effects of the damage during reentry.