PALIN MITENK BLOG

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER


Room with a view: Astronaut Andrew Feustel works in the space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay during the mission's first spacewalk at the International Space Station yesterday


Nasa has ordered Endeavour's crew to take a close look at a damaged tile on the space shuttle's delicate heat shield this morning.

Using a robotic arm, astronauts are now scrutinising a gouge on the shuttle's underbelly with a camera and laser attached to a boom.

The location and size gives engineers some confidence that the damage is not the type that caused the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. They also note that similar damage on Endeavour in 2007 - coincidentally commanded by Scott Kelly, brother of current commander Mark Kelly - turned out not to be a problem.

LeRoy Cain, chairman of the shuttle mission management team that decided to order what's called a 'focused inspection', said the operation was being conducted out of an abundance of caution and will not cause any disruption to the crew or its 16-day mission to the International Space Station.

The damaged tile was spotted in photos snapped by the station crew just before the shuttle linked up on Wednesday. Initially, the photos showed seven sites with dings or gouges, but six of them were further analysed and turned out not to be a problem.

The one site that remains a concern is the size of a deck of cards, just below the rear landing gear, but Cain said it is so unlikely that the gouge will be problematic that Nasa is not even considering a plan to fix the tile in flight. NASA can repair damaged tiles using a souped-up version of a caulking gun during a spacewalk.

'There's nothing alarming here and we're not really concerned,' Cain said.


Construction job with a difference: Andrew Feustel (right) and Gregory Chamitoff carry out repair work on the International Space Station


The delicate tiles are part of an intricate heat protection system that keeps the shuttle, especially its bottom and edges, from burning up during its fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. In 2003, damage to the edges and tiles allowed too much heat in, destroying Columbia and killing seven astronauts.

Since then, shuttles have been checked in flight for any ice or foam debris damage from lift-off, to make sure they are safe to fly home.

This is only the fifth time an extra inspection has been needed in 21 flights.

For this morning's inspection, the camera will take three close-up photos from seven feet away and the laser will get two sets of data. Officials expect this will provide enough information to plug into computer models to assure them that the damage isn't anything to worry about.


High-flyer: Astronaut Gregory Chamitoff makes his way back to the hatch at the end of his first spacewalk yesterday


Job done: Andrew Feustel enters the hatch on the International Space Station having carried out repairs


This is Endeavour's last flight and the second last of the 30-year space shuttle programme. Nasa is shutting down the programme to focus on eventual missions to a nearby asteroid or other places further out than Earth's orbit.

Shuttle Atlantis is tentatively set to make the last flight on July 8 with a load of supplies and equipment for the station.

Yesterday turned out to be a day of small concerns for Nasa, after an early morning routine spacewalk had to be cut short because of a sensor problem on an astronaut's spacesuit.

Nearly five hours into the six-and-a-half hour spacewalk, mission controllers noticed that Gregory Chamitoff's carbon dioxide sensor wasn't working. Nasa needs to know if levels of carbon dioxide - expelled when you breathe - get too high.

It is likely that moisture caused the infrared sensor to fail, said lead spacewalk officer Allison Bolinger.


Heavy workload: European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy floats through the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station


The levels were probably not too high, but controllers told Chamitoff and spacewalking partner Drew Feustel not to finish installing an antenna on the space station because it would take too much time.

The spacewalk ended 11 minutes earlier than planned. Feustel and Chamitoff installed a light fixture and swapped out some experiments parked outside the space station.
This was the first spacewalk for Chamitoff. He called it 'a dream come true for me'.

Endeavour's astronauts will make four spacewalks while docked at the space station.
Nasa approved a first-of-its-kind manoeuvre on Monday for a photo opportunity when a Russian Soyuz capsule undocks from the space station with three astronauts onboard.

The capsule will back away to about 600 feet and stop. The station will then slowly rotate so the Soyuz can get rare photos of the shuttle docked to the station from different angles and from another spaceship.

Delivered by Endeavour and added to the space station on Thursday was a $2billion physics experiment that looks for antimatter and dark matter. Later tday, the two crews will get an unprecedented VIP call when Pope Benedict XVI will make the first papal call to space.



Vital work: Andrew Feustel works in the vacuum of space installing an antenna and connecting power cables


source: dailymail