Special report: Launch of Atlantis
BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- A mystery object seen floating near the space shuttle Atlantis has forced NASA to delay the shuttle's return for an extra day while engineers try to determine possible damage to the spacecraft.
The Atlantis and its crew of six had been scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Wednesday after a successful mission to the International Space Station.
But concern that the unidentified object might be a critical piece of the Atlantis, and the possibility of poor landing weather,contributed to the one-day delay, according to N. Wayne Hale Jr., shuttle program manager
Hale said mission supervisors "decided we should delay de-orbit for a day and spend our time productively making sure we're comfortable with the status of the orbiter's heat shield in particular."
The Atlantis's protective heat shield, which includes tiles on its bottom and hard, composite material on its nose and the leading edges of the wings, has been inspected in detail twice — the day after its Sept. 9 launching and after the shuttle left the space station on Sunday — and declared in good shape for landing.
NASA has been particularly cautious about the heat shield since a crack in the Columbia's protective skin caused it to disintegrate when returning from a mission in February 2003, killing seven astronauts.
Hale said the object was first spotted early Tuesday by a camera in the Atlantis cargo bay. Low-resolution images and a lack of data about it prevent engineers from determining the object's size, mass or exact shape, he said, making it hard to tell whether the item is critical to the shuttle or a sign of a threat. The pictures indicate a very small black object orbiting near the shuttle, Hale said.
"It could be a little something up close or a bigger something a little further away," he said. "It's a bit of a mystery."
Hale said engineers believed that the object came off the shuttle after a routine check of its flight control system before landing.
To see whether anything critical has been compromised, ground controllers used cameras in the cargo bay and on the shuttle's robot arm to survey the cargo hold and upper surfaces of the orbiter. Managers decided to have the crew use the 50-foot arm on Wednesday to examine the bottom of the shuttle.
If observers spot something that requires further inspection, Hale said, astronauts could attach an extension to the arm and use another group of sensors for closer examination.
If the shuttle passes inspection and the crew is not too tired, Mr. Hale said the Atlantis would be cleared to land in Florida on Thursday at 6:21 a.m. EDT. The craft has supplies to stay in orbit through Saturday. Enditem
(Agencies)
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In this view from NASA TV, the space shuttle Atlantis is seen from a window of the International Space Station as it performs a 360-degree fly-around of the orbiting laboratory after undocking September 17, 2006. The black strips at the top and bottom of the image are due to the 16:9 aspect ratio of the hand-held high definition video cameras used to record the event from on board the station.Photo Gallery >>> |
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 8:50 a.m. EDT (1250 GMT)Sunday after astronauts had finished the installation of new solar panels to the orbiting outpost, NASA TV reported.
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Two Atlantis astronauts successfully completed the mission's third and final spacewalk. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)Photo Gallery >>> |
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Two Atlantis astronauts successfully completed the mission's third and final spacewalk Friday morning, according to a report from NASA's mission control center.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two astronauts finished on Wednesday morning the second spacewalk of a shuttle mission critical to completion of the half-finished orbital outpost.
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Astronaut Joe Tanner works to make the P3/P4 truss operational during his extravehicular excursion from the International Space Station in this view from NASA TV, September 12, 2006.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)Photo Gallery >>> |
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Atlantis mission specialists Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper smoothly finished the first of three spacewalks Tuesday morning, preparing the new truss for operation, according to NASA TV.
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