Endeavour Astronauts Scan Shuttle Heat Shield for Damage

Astronauts aboard NASA?s space shuttle Endeavour inspected their spacecraft?s heat shield for damage Saturday while engineers on Earth tackled minor communications glitches as the orbiter heads toward a weekend rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Shuttle astronauts used a laser-tipped inspection boom to scan Endeavour?s wing edges and nose cap for launch debris damage. They took extra time to take a close look at the base of the shuttle?s left rear engine pod, where part of an insulating blanket apparently ripped free during Endeavour?s Friday night launch.

The lost blanket is likely one of two pieces of debris spotted during Endeavour?s liftoff and reported to the crew by Mission Control late last night, said LeRoy Cain, chair of the mission?s management team, in a status briefing. The blanket is less than an inch thick, between 12 and 18 inches (30-45 cm) long and 4 inches (10 cm) wide, and not in an area that gets too hot during re-entry, he added.

?This is not an area that is of great concern to us in terms of losing a blanket,? Cain said.

Endeavour is due to dock at the space station on Sunday at 5:13 p.m. EST (2113 GMT) to deliver a new station crewmember, two new bedrooms, a second kitchen, extra bathroom, exercise gear, and a water recycling system that filters urine and sweat back into drinkable water. As they approach, astronauts aboard the station will conduct a photographic survey of Endeavour?s heat shield as well.

NASA has kept a close eye on shuttle heat shield health the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its astronaut crew in 2003. A piece of fuel tank insulation broke free during that shuttle?s launch and slammed into its wing-mounted heat shield, causing it to burn up during re-entry. Astronauts now routinely inspect their spacecraft?s heat shield just after launch, before docking at the space station and just before landing.

So far, Endeavour?s wing edges and nose cap have shown no obvious damage, but a team of specialists will spend the next few days poring through the inspection results to be sure, Cain said.

Meanwhile, engineers on Earth are working through two unrelated glitches with Endeavour?s main radio communications antenna, which appears to have separate hardware and software woes keeping it from working normally.

Cain said that the antenna doubles as radar tool during shuttle dockings at the space station. But Endeavour can use a backup star tracking system in its place if the glitches bog the radar function down during the shuttle?s planned space station arrival tomorrow.

Commanded by veteran spaceflyer Chris Ferguson, Endeavour?s seven-astronaut crew is flying a planned 15-day mission to the station to make repairs and install vital equipment designed to double the outpost?s crew size up to six people next year. Four spacewalks are planned to clean up an ailing solar array gear damaged by metal shavings and grinding.

NASA welcomed the crew to their first full day in space earlier today with the song ?Shelter? by Xavier Rudd, a long-distance dedication for Ferguson from Earth.

?Always a great day to be in space,? Ferguson said.                                                             

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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