This
story was updated at 9:57 a.m. EST.
HOUSTON — NASA hustled through the
night to organize detailed plans for the crew of space shuttle Atlantis, following
a medical issue with one of its crew members on Saturday.
In the instructions sent up
to the astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) this morning, NASA noted
a small tile falling off of an orbiter engine area known as the left Orbital
Maneuvering System (OMS) pod "stinger" in pre-launch photos. They
also called for an inspection of a small thermal blanket tear on the right OMS
pod.
NASA said it is still
reviewing the stray tile seen near Atlantis' massive engines but noted, however,
that "the entry thermal environment is more benign than the ascent thermal
environment at this location."
Led by
commander Stephen Frick, the STS-122 shuttle mission crew was slated to install
the European Space Agency's (ESA) new
Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS) during a
spacewalk today. But NASA delayed the orbital work by 24 hours and swapped out
an original member of the spacewalking team on Saturday due to medical concerns
raised by the crew.
NASA refused
to disclose what the
medical issue was or whom it affected. ESA astronaut Hans Schlegel was set
to assist mission specialist Rex Walheim on the mission’s first
spacewalk, and Schlegel has since been replaced by mission specialist Stanley
Love.
Extra
day in space
John
Shannon, deputy shuttle program manager here at NASA's Johnson Space Center
(JSC), said Saturday that the agency also added an extra day to the crew's
original 11-day mission. Mission managers quickly pulled together a set of
plans as to what activities astronauts will perform today more than 210 miles
(338 kilometers) above the Earth.
"The
mid-deck transfers all have to take place and that takes a tremendous amount of
time," Shannon said of the supplies still on board in Atlantis. Expedition
16 commander
Peggy Whitson, who celebrated her 48th birthday Saturday, confirmed with
mission controllers that she would partake in the transfer duties today.
Shannon also said last night that operations
teams at JSC might instruct the astronauts to take more images of a small thermal
blanket tear in a rear section of Atlantis, called the Orbital Maneuvering
System (OMS) pod.
"We
asked the team … if we were go and try to get any additional imagery on
that right OMS pod," Shannon said, suggesting that Atlantis' robotic arm
may be used to take additional images. "[Sunday] might be a good day to do
that."
In fact,
the crew was directed this morning to use the shuttle's robotic arm and 50-foot
(15-meter) extension boom to do a focused inspection
of the region around 2:15 p.m. EST (1915 GMT) Sunday.
Crew
swap
In addition to changing its original mission schedule, NASA
swapped members of its STS-122 shuttle and Expedition 16 space station crews
yesterday as planned.
Flight
engineer Dan Tani, who has lived on the space station since October 2007, was
formally replaced today by Atlantis astronaut Leopold Eyharts, a French
spaceflyer representing the ESA. The transfer took place when Tani's
custom-built seat liner inside a docked Russian Soyuz spacecraft was replaced
with Eyharts'.
"In an
emergency, Dan's going home on the shuttle," Whitson told mission
controllers yesterday. "He's pretty happy about that."
Astronauts awoke today to
"Männer" by Herbert Grönemeyer, a 1980s German pop music
idol and actor. The tune was selected by Schlegel's wife.
"Thank
you very much for this piece of music," Schlegel said after the tune
finished playing. "It's a German ... song about the nature of man."
NASA
expects Atlantis to land on Feb. 19 or possibly Feb. 20 if the agency decides
to add a second day to the mission.
NASA is
broadcasting Atlantis' STS-122 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
advertisement
