HOUSTON --
Astronauts aboard NASA’s shuttle Atlantis will rehearse a unique heat shield
repair plan Thursday as they continue efforts to retract an older solar array outside
the International Space Station (ISS).
Spacewalkers
Jim Reilly II and Danny Olivas will go over plans to use a medical stapler, dental
tool and Atlantis’ heat shield repair kit to secure
a loose blanket on one of their shuttle’s aft engines.
“What the
crew will be doing tomorrow, primarily, is getting prepared for that (extravehicular activity),” NASA’s
ISS flight director Kelly Beck told reporters here at the Johnson Space Center late
Wednesday after mission managers added the repair to Friday's planned
spacewalk.
Reilly and Olivas will
rehearse different ways of using staplers from the medical kits aboard Atlantis and the ISS to
staple a 4-inch by 6-inch (10-centimeter by 15-centimeter) triangular
blanket flap back into place on the shuttle’s left Orbital Maneuvering
System (OMS) pod. Aerodynamic loads on the flap freed it from its mount during
the shuttle’s June 8th launch, NASA has said.
Beck said
the shuttle crew will also participate in additional work to remotely pack away
an old U.S. solar array, which sits nearly half-furled at the top of the
orbital laboratory’s Port 6 truss after retraction efforts during
a Wednesday spacewalk. The outpost’s three-astronaut Expedition 15 crew,
meanwhile, is expected to continue
troubleshooting efforts with Russian ISS engineers to recover a series of
vital navigation and command and control computers inside the station’s Russian
segment.
Repair
details
While Atlantis’
damaged thermal blanket does not pose a risk to its astronaut crew for landing,
there is a possibility that it could lead to damage to the OMS pod’s underlying
structure and prompt lengthy repairs, NASA has said.
Current
plans call for a spacewalker to first pat the flap down flat with either his
hand or a scraper-like tool originally designed to repair Atlantis’
heat-resistant tiles and carbon composite panels, mission managers said.
“These
blankets are very formable,” said John Shannon, NASA’s deputy shuttle program
manager, late Wednesday. “It will take the shape that you put it in and will
stay there.”
Next, the
repair requires a double row of staples using the medical staplers along the tear’s edges, and
finishes with the use of a dental tool and stiff nickel chromium pins to secure
the torn blanket and part of an adjacent one into nearby tiles, Shannon said. The crew will take six staplers with them, each with 15 staples.
“The team
was very confident that the staples with the pins would meet our objectives,” he
added.
As a
backup repair, Reilly and Olivas will also practice a bit of orbital
sewing using stainless steel wire for thread and a spacesuit
darning needle.
“I think
the likelihood of actually having to use this is extremely low,” Shannon said
of the backup sewing method.
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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