Atlantis Readies to Meet Station
With a 4-inch gap in the space shuttle Atlantis’ heat- protecting blanket not appearing to be an urgent problem Saturday, the crew readied themselves to dock with the international space station.
The shuttle will enter a weeklong embrace today with the orbital outpost.
Atlantis’ seven astronauts spent much of Saturday on a mandatory inspection of the shuttle’s delicate heat tiles, outer edges and blankets for problems similar to the kind that caused the fatal Columbia accident in 2003. As of Saturday afternoon, no glaring problems were reported.
But late Friday and early Saturday, the crew spent extra time using a robot arm to look at a gap in a thermal blanket on the left side of the shuttle. The gap, about 4 inches, appears to be the result of an unusual fold in the blanket, NASA spokeswoman Lynette Madison said.
NASA mission managers discussed the gap Saturday and were not ready to pronounce the blanket completely OK until more analysis was done, NASA spokesman Kyle Herring said. It was not expected to change the astronauts’ plans in the next several days, he said.
“We’ve landed safely with damage (in the same area) that’s similar or worse,” Mr. Herring said. “I don’t think concern is the right word; there’s no urgency with the situation.”
The area does not get hotter than 700 degrees Fahrenheit during the shuttle’s return to Earth and is not a place where NASA is usually concerned about potentially fatal problems, Ms. Madison said.
As part of the normal day-after-launch tile inspections, astronaut Patrick Forrester used the shuttle’s robot arm and a boom extension to examine its wings and outer edges.
By late afternoon, mission managers had found no other issues, Mr. Herring said.
Atlantis’ seven-man crew was closing the gap between it and the space station by about 800 miles every 90-minute orbit. By 2 p.m. Saturday, the shuttle was scheduled to be about 4,000 miles away from its destination.
Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the space station today at 3:38 p.m.
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