"A Big Day"
"It's getting more exciting here for us every day," a European flight controller said Monday. "... We're looking forward to a successful Columbus installation today."
"This will be a big day for us," replied French Air Force Gen. Léopold Eyharts, who arrived at the station aboard Atlantis to spend a month setting up and activating the new lab.
With their flight now 12 days long because of the spacewalk delay, Atlantis's astronauts conducted another survey of a thermal blanket that has a torn corner—the stitching came apart at the seams, and the corner pulled up.
(See related: Crew to Check "Atlantis" for Damage February 8, 2008)
Engineers were analyzing the problem to determine whether the blanket would stand up to the intense heat of re-entry at flight's end, or whether spacewalk repairs might be needed. The blanket is located on the right orbital maneuvering system pod back near the shuttle's tail.
NASA is vigilant when it comes to the shuttle's thermal shielding, ever since Columbia was destroyed in 2003 following a foam strike to its wing during launch.
John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, said the thermal covering on the wings, nose and belly of Atlantis have no areas of concern and have been cleared for re-entry in just over a week.
Free Email News Updates
Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample).
|
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
|
