I don't think your metadata comment is true in the case of RAID-1. Mirrored RAID shouldn't need much of anything for metadata. I've only ever used both cheap RAID cards and motherboard RAID, doing a standard mirrored RAID-1. I've had multiple drive failures, and I've never had a RAID where I couldn't unplug one of the drives from the array and just use it independently of RAID without any issues. Its pretty easy to test, but I know I've taken drives out of a mirrored array and used it as an individual drive without problems.

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According to NASA, it has been on a 24 month orbiter maintenance/upgrade since 2003, and should be ready to fly sometime later this year. Here's the link to the info on NASA's page: Space Shuttle Endeavour.