CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Billy Witt, a midbody shop mechanic with shuttle contractor United Space Alliance, checks a part used for installing Reinforced Carbon Carbon (RCC) panels to the front of shuttle Atlantis' wing in this scene captured Sept. 15 inside a hangar of the Orbiter Processing Facility.

Two of the critical RCC panels are seen above Witt, already attached to Atlantis. The composite panels give the leading edge of the wing its aerodynamic shape, while also protecting the aluminum structure inside the wing from the intense heat experienced during re-entry.

A chunk of external tank insulation foam punched a hole in an RCC panel on Columbia's wing, triggering the Feb. 1 disaster that killed seven astronauts. As a result, officials investigating the tragedy have demanded that NASA fully inspect each RCC panel for weaknesses before every launch.

The space agency is working on ways to do those inspections without removing the panels, but in the meantime Atlantis' panels are being removed, sent back to their factory for tests and refurbishment, and then returned to the Kennedy Space Center for installation.

Credit: USA/NASA-KSC