Astronauts to Inspect Shuttle Heat Shield for Dings

Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Endeavour will survey their spacecraft's heat shield for dings or other damage today as they prepare for a Sunday arrival at the International Space Station (ISS).

Led by commander Chris Ferguson, the seven-person crew will deploy a sensor-tipped extension of the shuttle's 50-foot (15-meter) robotic arm to conduct the safety inspection following Endeavour?s launch late Friday.

?I?ll be doing a good chunk of the shuttle arm work,? Endeavour pilot Eric Boe said before the flight.

Boe and mission specialists Shane Kimbrough and Don Pettit will conduct the scan of Endeavour?s wing edges and nose cap to search for signs of dents and divots caused by foam or other debris during their Friday launch.

The inspection is expected to begin at about 2:15 p.m. EST (1915 GMT) and run several hours. Mission Control reported spotting two debris events during Endeavour?s liftoff, one at the 33-second mark and the other just over two minutes into the flight. But the debris in both instances appeared to be trailing behind the orbiter and not hit the orbiter, mission controllers told Endeavour?s crew.

Orbital inspections of a shuttle?s heat shield have been routine since the 2003 loss of shuttle Columbia and its seven-astronaut crew.  A suitcase-sized piece of fuel tank foam insulation struck the orbiter's left wing leading edge during liftoff, punching a hole in the spacecraft?s fragile heat shield and leading to the loss of the shuttle and its crew during re-entry.

Shuttle astronauts now use a suite of laser sensors and cameras at the end of an orbiter?s 50-foot (15-meter) inspection boom, which double?s the reach of its robotic arm to provide close-ups of the heat-resistant carbon composite tiles and panels along the sensitive wing edges and nose cap.

?Once all the data gets to the ground, our team of debris and imagery experts will review the data,? said Mike Sarafin, Endeavour?s lead STS-126 shuttle flight director before launch. ?In about 24 hours or so, they?ll provide a status report to the mission management team.?

Astronauts aboard the space station will also perform a photographic survey of Endeavour?s belly-mounted heat tiles prior to the spacecraft?s scheduled docking at 5:13 p.m. EST (2213 GMT) on Sunday.

A final inspection is scheduled near the end of shuttle mission to give engineers another chance to scrutinize the hull for any signs of damage from orbital debris or micrometeorites.

Endeavour?s STS-126 mission is targeted to prepare the space station for double-sized, six-person crews. That means a full schedule of four spacewalks for Endeavour's astronauts, who have brought up a cargo module loaded with more than seven tons of equipment and supplies to start revamping ISS.

"We?re taking a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house and turning it into a five-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a gym," said Ferguson in a preflight interview.

The planned 15-day mission will keep the Endeavour crew in space during Thanksgiving and the orbital laboratory's 10th anniversary on Nov. 20.

NASA is providing live coverage of Endeavour?s mission on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com?s mission coverage and NASA TV feed.

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