Patches

They've developed a nifty patching solution for tiles missing from the space shuttle wings from debris damage or vibrations.

Of course all of this depend on them being able to visually identify missing tiles from the space shuttle hull... And of course the patches are all experimental at this point. My guess is that after a couple flights NASA will forget about this. Especially with Griffin rushing ahead with the new CEV to replace the shuttle like he is. He can't be expecting to have to have many more shuttle flights.