No repairs needed as shuttle safe to fly home, says NASA

NASA said the space shuttle Endeavour was safe to fly home after deciding that no repairs were needed for a deep gouge.

Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision last night before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering ana-lysis and uncertainty.

“Please pass along our thanks for all the hard work,” radioed Endeavour’s commander, Scott Kelly.