This story was updated at 9:21 a.m.
EDT.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronauts
aboard the space shuttle Endeavour will scan their orbiter's heat shield on
Thursday to search for any damage from debris that fell from the spacecraft's
external tank during its launch into orbit.
A camera mounted on Endeavour's fuel
tank recorded eight or nine pieces of debris - either ice or foam - that
appeared to fall free during the shuttle's late Wednesday launch, though
mission managers do not yet know if they caused any harm. Endeavour
lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center here on a mission to the
International Space Station, triumphing after a string of delays caused by
weather and a gas leak.
"We had some foam loss
events," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's space
operations chief. "There were probably a couple orbiter hits prior to the
aerodynamic sensitive transportation time - that's the time when we could
potentially get damage to the shuttle. All the tools we've got in place for
foam loss and understanding what occurred will be in place and we'll go look at
those through ascent."
Endeavour is slated to catch up to
the International Space Station Friday to begin a complex 16-day construction
mission to install a porch-like science platform, the
final segment of the outpost's Japanese Kibo laboratory, and a host of
spare supplies for the station.
The shuttle flight launched just
ahead of the liftoff anniversary for NASA's historic Apollo 11 mission, which
blasted off 40 years ago today to send three Americans to make the first-ever
manned landing on the moon. The Endeavour astronauts will be in space Monday
for the anniversary of the actual
moon landing, which occurred on July 20, 1969. (NASA is broadcasting
real-time audio of the Apollo 11 launch and mission here: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/apollo11_radio/).
Shuttle commander Mark Polansky and the other
six astronauts aboard are due to begin their survey at 12:38 p.m. EDT (1638
GMT) using a sensor-tipped inspection pole to sweep the sensitive heat shield
panels lining the orbiter's wing edges and nose cap.
The meticulous scan should help
determine whether the orbiter is safe to fly home through Earth's atmosphere by
seeking out any damage from launch debris. A similar scan will be performed
near the end of Endeavour's flight to look for dings from space junk and
micrometeorites. Astronauts aboard the space station
will photograph the thousands of tiles on Endeavour's belly before the shuttle
docks to complete the heat shield health check.
The inspections have been a standard
part of shuttle mission since the loss of Columbia and its seven-astronaut crew
in 2003. A piece of foam debris damaged Columbia's heat shield during launch,
leading to its destruction during re-entry.
Thursday's heat shield inspection is
scheduled to last several hours while Polansky, pilot
Doug Hurley, and mission specialist Julie Payette scrutinize the shuttle's
wings and underbelly.
"It's very intensive, takes a
lot of time and a lot of attention so three of us will be doing that," Polansky said in a preflight interview. "In the
meantime, the rest of the crew will be getting ready for what they're going to
be primarily accomplishing, which are the spacewalks."
The rest of the crew plans to gather
the gear needed for the mission's five
planned spacewalks, including the spacesuits and tools. That equipment must
be checked out to make sure it is working properly, and readied to be
transferred into the space station when the shuttle arrives.
"It's a long, extensive process
to double check that, make sure that everything is in the same configuration as
when they launched it, and nothing got rattled out of place with the dynamic
environment of the launch and get things set up for the next day when we
rendezvous with the station and open the hatches," said mission specialist
Chris Cassidy. "We need to immediately get going for a campout in
preparation for the next day's [spacewalk]. So in large part that second day is
making sure we're ready for the rendezvous."
Endeavour is due to dock at the
space station at 1:55 p.m. EDT (1755 GMT) on Friday.
SPACE.com is providing continuous
coverage of STS-127 with reporter Clara Moskowitz at Cape Canaveral and senior
editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for mission
updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.
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