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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA conducted a swift series of tests on the ground Monday to determine whether spacewalking astronauts need to fix a deep gouge in Endeavour’s belly for re-entry, and assembled a special team to weigh the repair options.

The gouge is relatively small – 31/2 inches by 2 inches – but part of it penetrates through the protective thermal tiles, leaving just a thin layer of coated felt over the space shuttle’s aluminum frame to keep out the more than 2,000-degree heat of re-entry.

The exposed area is 1 inch long and less than a quarter-inch wide.

Mission managers expect to decide by Wednesday whether astronauts should go out and patch the gouge. The damage is benign enough for Endeavour to fly safely home. It is more a matter of avoiding extensive post-flight repairs to any possible structural damage, said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team.

“This is not a catastrophic loss of orbiter case at all. This is a case where you want to do the prudent thing for the vehicle,” Shannon told reporters Monday evening.

NASA has never attempted this type of repair on an orbiting shuttle, and two of the three remedies are untested in space.

Engineers are uncertain whether it was foam insulation that came off Endeavour’s external fuel tank and struck the shuttle at liftoff, as was the case for Columbia four years ago, or whether the debris was ice or a combination of materials, Shannon said.

Despite extensive redesigning of the shuttle fuel tank that has already cost NASA a few hundred million dollars, foam has repeatedly fallen off the tank during launch, although nothing nearly as big as the piece that crippled Columbia.

Depending on how NASA addresses the latest problem, space shuttle flights could possibly come to a temporary halt, stalling construction at the international space station once more. Foam problems have caused two lengthy holddowns.

To patch the gouge, spacewalking astronauts would have to perch on the end of the shuttle’s 100-foot robotic arm and extension boom, be maneuvered under the spacecraft, and apply black paint and possibly squirt in goo, as well.

The black coating, intended to help dissipate heat, was tested on a previous shuttle flight. The caulk-like goo has been tested in vacuum chambers on Earth, but never in space. A third option, a screw-on panel that’s intended for bigger damage, was ruled out late Monday.

“This is kind of a pain to have to go and run all these assessments. It’s kind of a pain if I have to get the vehicle, get somebody under the vehicle and put a little squirt of goo,” Shannon said. But three or four hours of spacewalk repairs would be preferable to 12 weeks of inspection and repairs to Endeavour because of re-entry heat damage, he noted.

Shannon said the fact that the space shuttles are slated to retire in 2010, and the space station needs to be completed by then, did not enter the discussions.

A 61/2-hour spacewalk by two of Endeavour’s astronauts Monday, meanwhile, was comparatively routine.

Astronauts Rich Mastracchio and Dave Williams ventured outside for the second time in three days, removing a 600-plus-pound gyroscope from the space station’s exterior that failed last October. They installed a new one in its place that was carried up aboard Endeavour. The space station has four gyroscopes to keep it steady and pointed in the right direction.

Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan – Christa McAuliffe’s backup for Challenger’s doomed mission in 1986 – helped monitor the spacewalk from inside the joined shuttle-station complex.

Even before Endeavour’s liftoff, NASA was planning a third spacewalk for Wednesday and a fourth for Friday to carry out more space station work. Any shuttle repairs, if ordered, would take place on the fourth outing. The shuttle isn’t due to leave the station until next Monday; landing is set for Aug. 22.

The damage occurred a minute after liftoff last week when a baseball-sized piece of debris broke off a bracket on the external fuel tank, bounced off a strut farther down on the tank, then slammed into Endeavour’s belly. It’s also possible part of the strut broke off when the debris hit it and that’s what may have shot into Endeavour, Shannon said.

By comparison, the chunk of foam that carved a 6-inch to 10-inch hole in Columbia’s left wing back in 2003 was the size of a small carry-on suitcase.

The speed at which the debris broke off Endeavour’s tank – 300 feet per second – is puzzling if it was solely foam, Shannon said. Experts assumed foam would have shattered going that fast and not remained intact and then hit the shuttle, he noted.

The brackets that hold the liquid oxygen feed line to the tank are particularly troublesome. NASA is switching from foam-covered aluminum alloy brackets to titanium ones that would require hardly any foam, but not until next spring. That leaves three more shuttle launches at risk for shedding bracket foam.

Shannon stressed Sunday – and again Monday – that there will always be some risk of launch debris, no matter how many improvements.

“The risk is not zero and we have known that from day one,” he said.

LOS ANGELES – Brad Garrett is the latest celebrity to tangle with photographers.

Garrett, who stars in the Fox sitcom “‘Til Death,” is shown slapping away a camera in a video posted online Monday.

The camera belonged to a photographer working for TMZ.com, which posted the video, TMZ managing editor Harvey Levin said Monday.

The 47-year-old actor was leaving a restaurant Sunday night, according to TMZ, when he was surrounded by paparazzi. He is seen chatting amiably with them as he walks to his car, when one begins shouting insults.

He looks into the video camera of a TMZ photographer, says, “Excuse me,” and slaps the lens.

“What are you hitting me for?” the videographer shouts, adding he wasn’t the one yelling at Garrett. “You hit my face with that,” he says as Garrett gets in his car to leave.

Levin said the man suffered minor injuries, including a swollen eye.

Garrett’s manager, Glenn Robbins, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Levin said TMZ wouldn’t press charges because the camera wasn’t damaged.

Garrett won three Emmy Awards for his role as Ray Romano’s brother, Robert, on CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond.”1848 – The Oregon Territory was created.

1900 – International forces, including U.S. Marines, entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreign influence.

1917 – China declared war on Germany and Austria during World War I.

1935 – President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.

1945 – President Harry Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.

1947 – Pakistan became independent of British rule.

1969 – British troops went to Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

1973 – The U.S. bombing of Cambodia came to a halt.

1980 – Workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in a job action that resulted in the creation of the Solidarity labor movement.

1981 – Pope John Paul II left a Rome hospital, three months after being wounded in an attempt on his life.

1997 – An unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

2003 – A huge blackout hit the northeastern United States and part of Canada; 50 million people lost power.

2006 – Cuban state television aired the first video of Fidel Castro since he stepped down as president to recover from surgery, showing the bedridden Cuban leader talking with his brother Raul as well as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The following is a list of deaths in the area. Obituaries are on Page 3B.

Vern Bennett/Carbondale

Marvin Gile/Wichita

Ethel Griffing/Mesa, Ariz.

Otis Jones/New Strawn

Harlen Kleiner/Wamego

Opal Kunkel/Waverly

Jesse Moore/Topeka

Rev. Donald Roberts/Topeka

Robert Rohr/Topeka

Betty Shortt/Topeka

Vera Trout/Topeka

Melvin Uhl/PerryPulitzer Prize-winning author

Russell Baker82

Singer Buddy Greco81

Actress Alice Ghostley81

Rock singer David Crosby66

Country singer Connie Smith66

Comedian-actor Steve Martin62

Actress Susan Saint James61

Actor Antonio Fargas61

Author Danielle Steel60

“Far Side” cartoonist Gary Larson57

Actor Carl Lumbly56

Film composer James Horner54

Actress Jackee Harry51

Actress Marcia Gay Harden48

Former basketball player

Earvin “Magic” Johnson48

Singer Sarah Brightman47

Actress Susan Olsen46

Rock musician Keith Howland (Chicago)43

Actress Emmanuelle Beart42

Actress Halle Berry41

Actress Catherine Bell39

Rock musician Kevin Cadogan37

Actor Scott Michael Campbell36

Actress Lalanya Masters35

Actress Mila Kunis24

LOS ANGELES – The boys from Van Halen, most notably mercurial guitarist Eddie Van Halen, showed up as promised at a news conference Monday to announce their fall tour with original singer David Lee Roth, starting Sept. 27 in Charlotte, N.C., before wrapping Dec. 11 in Calgary, Alberta.

Group members said the tour isn’t a reunion but the start of a new band.

“We’re not rockers with walkers,” Roth said. “Meet us in the future, not the pasture.”

Tickets for the first batch of shows go on sale Saturday.

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