The crew of the inspecting the heat shields on Tuesday. Using the shuttle's robotic arm, astronauts collected data and images of critical areas of the shuttle's thermal protection system, especially on the craft's nose and the edges of its wings. Part of a routine checkup after any shuttle launch, the inspection took up most of the crew's first full day in space.

A few hours after the inspection began, that dings or scratches were found in some of the shuttle's outer tiles.

Scratches were found on the forward part of the shuttle's right wing, close to where it connects to the fuselage, according to NASA spokeswoman Katherine Trinidad. The damage, found on four different heat shield tiles, looks minor, but NASA will continue to investigate it.

The damage seems to be related to a debris impact that occurred about 104 seconds after the Monday afternoon.

After wrapped up late this afternoon, NASA announced that they have discovered that an area of the shuttle's heat shield had not been inspected at all. The area is below the forward thrusters on the vehicle's port nose.