In an eerily similar situation to the space shuttle Columbia, that burned upon re-entry a little over three years ago, the space shuttle Endeavour has a serious problem.

The other coincidence is this shuttle, like Challenger, has a teacher onboard.

Upon liftoff a chunk of foam broke off the fuel tank, and was probably frozen into ice from the cold fuel being fed into the rockets. It caused a three and a half inch gouge in the underbelly of the shuttle, and has penetrated the heat shield. NASA says since Columbia all shuttles are equipped to handle repairs of such problems.

HOUSTON — A close-up laser inspection by Endeavour’s astronauts Sunday revealed that a 3 1/2-inch-long gouge penetrates all the way through thermal tiles on the shuttle’s belly, and had NASA urgently calculating whether risky spacewalk repairs are needed.

A chunk of insulating foam smacked the shuttle at liftoff last week in an unbelievably unlucky ricochet off the fuel tank and carved out the gouge.

The unevenly shaped gouge — which straddles two side-by-side tiles and the corner of a third — is 3 1/2 inches long and just over 2 inches wide. Sunday’s inspection showed that the damage went all the way through the 1-inch-thick tiles, exposing the felt material sandwiched between the tiles and the shuttle’s aluminum frame.

Mission managers expect to decide Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, whether to send astronauts out to patch the gouge. Engineers are trying to determine whether the marred area can withstand the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry at flight’s end, and actual heating tests will be conducted on similarly damaged samples.

“We have really prepared for exactly this case, since Columbia,” said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. “We have spent a lot of money in the program and a lot of time and a lot of people’s efforts to be ready to handle exactly this case.”

The damaged thermal tiles are located near the right main landing gear door. In a stroke of luck, they’re right beneath the aluminum framework for the right wing, which would offer extra protection during the ride back to Earth.

This area is subjected to as much as 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry. A hole, if large and deep enough, could lead to another Columbia-type disaster.

Let’s remember these brave seven people who went into space knowing they could lose their lives in the effort. Let us pray for a safe return of these six Americans and one Canadian.