HOUSTON — Atlantis
shuttle astronauts took a close look at a torn insulation blanket on their
vehicle's engine pod Sunday as mission managers officially extended their
flight by one day due to a crew member's illness.
John Shannon, NASA's deputy shuttle
program manager, said Atlantis' now 12-day mission to deliver a new European
lab to the International Space Station (ISS) was extended to make up for
lost time. An undisclosed medical issue among Atlantis' crew Saturday prompted
a 24-hour delay for a spacewalk originally scheduled for today.
European Space
Agency (ESA) astronaut Hans Schlegel, a German spaceflyer, was replaced by U.S.
crewmate Stanley Love for the upcoming spacewalk after the
medical issue arose, but is expected to rejoin the spacewalking rotation
later this week as per the mission plan, said NASA's STS-122 shuttle flight
director Mike Sarafin.
"The plan right
now is to perform the rest of the mission as planned," Sarafin told reporters
in an afternoon briefing here at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). "The timeline
changes that we've had to make aren't going to result in any impact to the
mission."
While the U.S.
space agency refrained from commenting on the nature of the illness or whom it
afflicted, ESA officials revealed some details earlier today on their blog
chronicling Atlantis' mission to deliver the European Columbus laboratory to
the ISS.
"Hans
Schlegel went into space in perfect health condition," wrote Volker Damann,
head of the ESA's Crew Medical Support Office, in mission update posted to the
blog.
"However, he has developed a condition that is neither life threatening nor
does it impact the health of other crew members — but is currently not
compatible with a space walk (EVA)."
ESA officials said they were confident
Schlegel would be ready for the second of three planned spacewalks for
Atlantis' STS-122 mission. That spacewalk, also to be performed alongside
Walheim, is now scheduled for Wednesday.
The shuttle astronauts launched on
Feb. 7 and are now expected to land on Feb. 19.
Shuttle crew inspects torn shuttle
blanket
With their first
spacewalk delayed to Monday, Atlantis astronauts squeezed in an extra
inspection of their shuttle's heat shield to take a closer look at a small torn
piece of insulation.
The small, uplifted
piece of torn fabric is located on the shuttle's right rear-mounted engine
pod, and is one of the few remaining outstanding items for analysis related to
the health of Atlantis' vital heat shield.
"We have
completely cleared the bottom of the orbiter," Shannon said, adding that the
heat-resistant carbon composite panels along Atlantis' nose and wing edges are
also in fine shape.
Aside from the
slightly torn blanket and a few chipped heat-resistant tiles around Atlantis'
windows, the spacecraft appears to be in good health, he added.
"The team has
taken this somewhat unexpected day inserted before the [spacewalk] and made
great use of it," Shannon said.
NASA is broadcasting Atlantis'
STS-122 mission live on NASA TV. Click
here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
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