This story was updated at 5:57 p.m. EDT.
Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle
Atlantis scanned their spacecraft's heat shield for any signs of damage Saturday
as they continue on course towards the International Space Station (ISS).
Atlantis launched
into orbit late Friday on a planned 11-day construction mission to the orbital
laboratory. Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Rick Sturckow, the mission will
deliver a pair of new starboard solar arrays and trusses to the ISS after
docking on Sunday.
But first, the shuttle's
seven-astronaut crew used a sensor-laden extension of Atlantis' 50-foot
(15-meter) robotic arm to capture detailed images of the orbiter's heat shield
in what has now a standard activity since NASA recovered from the 2003 Columbia accident. The
task allows engineers on Earth to verify whether the shuttle suffered damage
from falling debris during liftoff.
"This mission, we've
incorporated some of the lessons learned from previous flights," Cathy Koerner,
NASA's lead shuttle flight director for Atlantis' STS-117 mission, said of the
survey. "We've made them more efficient. We've automated some of the
maneuvers."
Today's orbiter
heat shield inspection, a traditional Flight Day 2 task since NASA resumed
shuttle flights in 2005, is slated to began at about
3:00 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) and was slated to run about five hours in duration.
STS-117 mission specialist Patrick
Forrester, who serves as lead shuttle robotics operator, and his crewmates have
already found some slight damage in the form of a torn
thermal blanket on one Atlantis' two aft-mounted Orbital Maneuvering System
(OMS) pods. The damage was recorded late Friday during robotic arm checks after
the orbiter reached space, and will be studied alongside data collected today,
NASA officials said.
NASA has kept a close eye on the
integrity of its shuttle heat shields during spaceflights after the 2003 loss
of the Columbia orbiter and its seven-astronaut crew. A piece of fuel tank foam
insulation fell free during Columbia's launch and damaged its heat shield,
leading to its loss during landing as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere.
Since then, NASA has modified
shuttle fuel tanks to reduce foam debris during liftoff and instituted several in-flight
inspections to ensure the health of its astronaut-carrying spacecraft.
Cameras mounted to Atlantis' fuel
tank did record some foam loss during its Friday launch, but mission managers said the
debris appeared not
to strike the orbiter.
Swifter survey
During today's inspection, laser
imagers and digital cameras at the tip of Atlantis' 50-foot (15-meter) robotic
arm extension recorded detailed views of the orbiter's belly-mounted tiles
other areas for later analysis by experts on Earth.
"I think in the past, it's been
almost a seven- or eight-hour process," Atlantis shuttle pilot Lee
Archambault, who also participated in the survey, told reporters before launch,
adding that the new automated procedures for STS-117 were expected to save
time. "It knocks a couple of hours off the inspection time."
Archambault said the survey also
features the first simultaneous use of both a laser ranging imager and a
high-resolution digital camera, which were used separately in the past when
focused inspections were required after the initial scan.
"It's almost like we're going
to be getting a focused inspection at the same time as the primary inspection,"
Archambault said.
NASA is broadcasting the space
shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for mission updates and
SPACE.com's video feed.
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