HOUSTON - NASA engineers worked feverishly Monday to decide whether Endeavour’s crew would have to perform risky repairs to a gouge on the space shuttle’s belly later this week.

The damage to the shuttle's underbelly's thermal tiles is worse than expected and could delay future shuttle missions needed to complete construction of the international space station.

The three-inch gouge apparently reaches to the shuttle's aluminum skin. Experts are busy this morning with computer analysis and arc-jet tests in laboratories and NASA managers will meet this afternoon to decide how to proceed.
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