Breaking News: Atlantis Damaged After Lift-Off

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Breaking News: Atlantis Damaged After Lift-Off

Astronauts Inspect Atlantis, Set to Reach Hubble Wednesday

Update: May 12 2009 12:51:28 PM PDT - Heat Shield Survey Complete

Atlantis’ crew completed a planned survey of the shuttle heat shielding today, noting a few dings in tiles that experts will continue to analyze. Flight Director Tony Ceccacci said that upon an initial look, damage found during the inspection appeared to be minor and likely not a concern, but he said experts would analyze it as is normal to be certain the shuttle’s heat shielding is in good shape. The damage included small dings along an area of about 21 inches spanning four of the shuttle’s thermal tiles located on the starboard side of the spacecraft where the wing blends into the forward fuselage
The space shuttle Atlantis sustained damage to the exterior two minutes after take-off.
Astronauts have discovered a line of nicks on shuttle during post launch inspection.

Hubble upgrade Mission:

This is the crew's first full day in orbit. They are scheduled to rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope on Wednesday when astronauts will use the shuttle's robotic arm again - this time to grab onto the orbiter and pull it into the shuttle's payload bay. On Thursday, two astronauts will make the first of the mission's five spacewalks.

The shuttle is carrying 22,500 pounds of equipment for the maintenance and upgrade of the 19-year-old telescope, including new grapple hooks and a platform that can be used in case future missions go up to service the telescope. This will be the shuttle's last trip to Hubble though, since the NASA space shuttles are scheduled to be retired next year.

This week's mission includes plans to install new gyroscopes, circuit boards and critical camera systems. The NASA astronauts are also bringing up a new backup computer system to replace an onboard backup system that had to be put into use last fall when the main system failed, leaving the Hubble unable to do much of its scientific work. NASA engineers made the remote switchover to a backup system from a room in the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., while the telescope hurtled along its orbit around Earth at 17,500 mph.

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009