HOUSTON -
Astronauts might have to squeeze in a repair operation during this week's
spacewalks to mend a torn insulation blanket on the rear section of the space
shuttle Atlantis, mission managers said Sunday.
The
4-inch by 6-inch (10-centimeter
by 15-centimeter) triangular flap of heat-resistant fabric is located on the left
Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod of the shuttle. It was spotted
by Atlantis' astronaut crew shortly after they reached orbit Friday
evening.
Images
showing a closer
look at the damage, taken today by STS-117 mission specialist Danny Olivas,
suggest the blanket was uplifted by air rushing past the rear section of the
shuttle during its ascent into orbit.
"It looks
like—and the experts were completely unanimous—that this was not impact damage
that caused this blanket to raise up. It was [aerodynamic] loads," said John Shannon, chairman of NASA's STS-117 Mission
Management Team (MMT).
"During
launch, that area sees a pretty significant airflow," Shannon added. "It looks
like there might have been a gap between two [nearby thermal insulation] tiles
that allowed some air to impinge directly on the blanket."
Engineers
are concerned the torn section of blanket, which is currently folded back on
itself, could heat up during reentry and damage the internal graphite-epoxy
honeycomb structure of the OMS pod underneath.
While that is
not likely threaten the integrity of Atlantis during reentry, it "would mean
some refurbishment on the ground that we don't really want to do," Shannon
said.
The good
news is that, because the torn section of blanket did not wrench away
completely, repairing it will be a relatively simple matter of flattening it
back down and securing it using pins or some other method, Shannon said.
That repair, if it is required, will
likely take place during one of the latter spacewalks planned for the mission,
Shannon said.
The STS-117 crew is scheduled to
perform three, and possibly four, spacewalks over the next several days to
install new truss segments and solar arrays onto the ISS that were delivered by
Atlantis.
The MMT
expects to make a final decision on whether to repair the blanket on Monday,
Shannon 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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