Space Shuttles and Tile Loss

A shockingly common combination

The Shuttle Endeavour is pictured here as it entered its roll program during launch of STS-118. Picture- NASA

On August 8th, 2007 the Shuttle Endeavour carried a crew of seven into orbit on an ISS assembly mission. The liftoff of STS-118 looked like many of the other launches during the Shuttle program and its mission was another trip to the ISS. So far, so good.

Among the crew was Barbara Morgan, a teacher initially accepted into the Teacher in Space Project in 1985 along with Christa McAuliffe. Morgan was the backup for Christa McAuliffe, who was killed in the Challenger disaster in 1986. During STS-118 Morgan was a Mission Specialist who supported the installation of new hardware on the International Space Station (ISS). Endeavour’s mission was successful, delivery of components and supplies to the ISS went as planned.

Morgan (front center) and her crewmates are pictured below. Find out more about this picture and others from this mission by checking out this link. Also pictured is Endeavour performing the rendezvous pitch maneuver, which allowed the crew on the ISS to examine the orbiter’s heatshield.

There was some unplanned attention during this mission due to a small area of damage on Endeavour’s…