All’s well with Endeavour, says NASA

NASA decided on Thursday that no repairs are needed for a deep gouge in Endeavour’s belly and that the space shuttle is safe to fly home. Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision right before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering analyses and anxious uncertainty — both in orbit and on Earth.

Endeavour’s relieved commander, Scott Kelly, thanked everyone on the ground for their hard work. Mission Control replied, “It’s great we finally have a decision and we can press forward.”

After meeting for five hours, mission managers opted on Thursday night against any risky spacewalk repairs based on the overwhelming—but not unanimous—recommendations of hundreds of engineers.