2007 IAC: Risk-vs-Risk: The Resolution of the Recent Space Shuttle On-Orbit Tile Damage

The speaker for Wednesday's IAC 2007 Late Breaking News was Mr William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator of the Space Operations Missions Directorate at NASA HQ. It was entitled Risk-vs-Risk: The Resolution of the Recent Space Shuttle On-Orbit Tile Damage.

The Shuttle Mission STS-118, on board Endeavour was launched in August 2007 and suffered tile damage. This morning's talk concentrated on how NASA balanced the risk to the Shuttle's structure during re-entry against the risk to the crew and Shuttle if an Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA; space walk) repair were implemented.