Nicks and Dings:

Here's what all the fuss was about - the ding in Endeavour's belly from the ET foam strike:



The inspection of Endeavour on the KSC runway has just started.

You might ask: "How could a piece of foam do this much damage? Aren't those tiles tough?" I answered that (with a little help from a Nobel laureate) for the Columbia disaster.

Shuttle HUD views

The recent NASA TV coverage of Endeavour's landing at KSC included some live views through the heads-up display system that I had not seen before.

Here are four frame grabs from the footage that provide a nice sample of the coverage. Pay close attention to the hair raising (at least for a VFR pilot) angle of descent...



Last turn of the shuttle aligning with runway centerline.



Runway in view.



Yikes! That is damned steep. My instinct simply screams "Too high! Too high! Where the hell is the VASI?" Heh.



Final flare started, wind from the left at about 10 kts.