He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. After a two-day chase through space, the shuttle linked up with the station 344 km (214 miles) above Earth, bringing. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. Space NASA to inspect damage to shuttle heat shield. Before joining, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach.

He became 's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor.

You can follow Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter Follow for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter and on Facebook. That flight is currently slated to lift off July 8. This was the 25th and final flight for Endeavour, which spent 299 days in space, orbited Earth 4,671 times and traveled. NASA officials late Thursday night decided that astronauts will not take a spacewalk to repair a gash in tiles on the belly of shuttle Endeavour. After Endeavour lands, NASA will fly one final mission on the shuttle Atlantis before shutting down the program. Headed for the International Space Station, the agency's youngest shuttle made its final flight delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) and critical supplies, including two communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank and additional parts for the Dextre robot. 'We're not losing any activities by doing this,' he added.Įndeavour's current mission is NASA's 134th shuttle flight and the second-to-last flight before the 30-year-old program ends later this year. Those events should not be affected by Endeavour's extra heat shield inspection, Cain said. 12, 2007 using a camera on an extension boom during a focused inspection by the orbiter's crew. The astronauts are also expecting a phone call from Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican early Saturday morning to mark the fact that two Italian astronauts - station crewmember Paolo Nespoli and shuttle astronaut Roberto Vittori - are in space at the same time. This image of the gouge to heat shield tiles on the space shuttle Endeavour was taken Aug. The astronauts were planning to take some time off late Friday (actually the crew's 'morning' due to a skewed overnight schedule) to rest up from the busy mission. (Image credit: NASA)Įndeavour's six-astronaut crew is currently in the midst of a 16-day mission to the International Space Station to deliver a major astrophysics experiment along with other supplies and equipment. This NASA graphic released on May 20, 2011, (Flight Day 5) shows the internal structure of shuttle Endeavour beneath a damaged tile on its belly-mounted heat shield.

Space shuttle endeavor damage nasa 2007