Atlantis astronauts forced into shorter shuttle survey
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A snagged cable forced Atlantis’ astronauts to resort to a more inconvenient and less comprehensive method of inspecting their space shuttle Saturday as they sped toward a weekend rendezvous with the International Space Station.
Mission Control, meanwhile, was monitoring a piece of space junk that was threatening to come too close to the space station. The debris was projected to pass within six miles of the complex Sunday morning, shortly after the shuttle’s scheduled arrival.
Flight director Mike Sarafin said the estimated gap was right at the allowable limit, and noted that even a small error in determining the location and timing of the junk could have dire consequences.
Experts did not know how big the object was or where it originated. Its extreme egg-shaped orbit — taking it from thousands of miles above the space station to just below it — made it especially difficult to track.
Flight controllers were going to decide Saturday evening whether to move the space station into a slightly lower orbit. Even if the station has to dodge out of the way, it won’t delay Sunday morning’s scheduled docking by Atlantis.
The condensed safety survey of Atlantis also will not interfere with the docking, Sarafin said.
The inspection is a standard — and essential — procedure the day after liftoff. A 100-foot boom is used to survey the heat shield on both wings and the nose in a hunt for launch damage.
On Saturday morning, however, the astronauts could not tilt the bundle of laser sensors and TV camera on the end of the pole. It turns out a cable was pinched by the camera at the end of the boom. The astronauts didn’t think they could free it.
Finally, after several hours, Mission Control had the astronauts use the backup set of lasers and camera hard-mounted to the boom, which left out some potential problem areas. They were limited to the daytime side of Earth because of the digital camera equipment. The crew focused on the most vulnerable areas — the heat shield on the wings and nose. But the survey fell short on the left wing.
Atlantis’ astronauts may use the shuttle robot arm to complete the inspection following Sunday’s docking. In addition, extra photos may be ordered up from the space station crew during Atlantis’ final approach.
Day-after-launch and day-before-landing shuttle inspections were put in place after the 2003 Columbia disaster. Columbia shattered during re-entry because of a hole in the left wing; it was left there by insulating foam that broke off the fuel tank during liftoff. Only a few small pieces of foam were spotted coming off Atlantis’ tank Friday. Nonetheless, the wings and nose still needed to be checked.
This is Atlantis’ last planned flight after a quarter-century of service. It’s hauling fresh batteries and a new Russian compartment to the space station.
Only two more shuttle flights remain, by Discovery and Endeavour. NASA is ending the program so it can focus on presidential-ordered trips to asteroids and Mars.
-- Associated Press