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Endeavour astronauts scour ship for signs of liftoff damage
Nov 15, 2008 (Houston Chronicle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The shuttle Endeavour raced after the international space station this afternoon, while the astronauts scanned their ship for signs of damage from their nighttime liftoff.
The seven fliers were on course to dock with the 220 mile high orbital outpost on Sunday at 4:04 p.m. CST.
The Friday night liftoff initiated a 15- to 16-day mission to equip the station with a second kitchen, bathroom and more bedrooms. The new gear will allow NASA and its 14 international space station partners to raise from three to six the number of astronauts who can live aboard the outpost.
If the Endeavour crew's home improvements are successful, the increase in staffing would begin in late May.
"We're off to a great start to a very complex and challenging mission," said NASA's LeRoy Cain , who chairs the mission management team.
During their first full day in space, the astronauts used cameras and lasers attached to the shuttle's robot arm to examine fragile heat shielding on the wings and nose of the ship.
There were no obvious signs of damage as Endeavour sped into orbit. But the imagery beamed to Mission Control today will undergo several days of analysis by experts just to make sure.
The inspections became a regular part of every shuttle flight, following the 2003 shuttle Columbia tragedy. Columbia's fatal breakup was traced to undetected wing damage from an impact with debris during the launch.
As Endeavour nears the station today , commander Chris Ferguson will maneuver the shuttle through a slow back flip so astronauts aboard the station can take photos of the ship's underside. That imagery will also be transmitted to Mission Control as part of the damage assessment.
On Monday, the shuttle astronauts will hoist a module holding nearly nine tons of cargo, including a water recycler, the new galley and bathroom, from Endeavour to a berthing port on the station.
While the home improvement activities are under way, Endeavour's astronauts plan four spacewalks.
The first outing is scheduled for Tuesday.
During the spacewalks, the astronauts intend to clean and lubricate the gearing mechanisms that rotate the solar panels that jut from the station.
The rotations allow the panels to track the sun as the station circles the Earth. The tracking increases the electricity generated by the panels for life support systems and science experiments.
A year ago, engineers grew concerned when they spotted vibrations in the movement of panels on the station's right side. Subsequently, spacewalking astronauts found internal damage in one of the mechanisms.
Endeavour's cleanup is part of a long-term repair strategy.
mark.carreau@chron.com
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