NASA Says Astronauts May Yet Open Jammed Shuttle Hatch

NASA suspects a stuck hatch on the space shuttle Columbia could be slightly out of alignment, a problem the astronauts might be able to fix with some well-placed shoves.

The jammed hatch prevented two astronauts from making a spacewalk Thursday. NASA studied photos and documents Friday to see what Columbia’s astronauts could do to open the hatch.

Engineers saw nothing obstructing the six latches on the hatch, leading them to suspect a misalignment.

The earliest that astronauts Tamara Jernigan and Thomas Jones could attempt a spacewalk is tonight. That’s when they should have been making spacewalk No. 2.

Jernigan and Jones pushed as hard as they could Thursday night but could not rotate the handle on the hatch leading into the open cargo bay.

It is the first time a hatch has jammed in 15 years of space shuttle flight. NASA flight director Rob Kelso admitted there’s little the astronauts can do. The drive mechanism for the latches is on the exterior of the hatch, beyond the crew’s reach.

More than anything, NASA does not want to make matters worse.

It would be disastrous, for instance, if Jernigan and Jones force open the hatch but cannot close it properly after their spacewalk.

Without a decent seal, the chamber, or air lock, holding the spacewalkers could not be pressurized and they would be unable to reenter the pressurized shuttle.

Jernigan and Jones, on their first walk, were supposed to test a 17 1/2-foot crane and other new tools.

NASA was counting on these spacewalks to make final decisions about spacewalking gear for assembly of an international space station.