Spaceflight Now




Final shuttle heat shield inspections performed
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: September 18, 2006

The Atlantis astronauts carried out a final inspection of the shuttle's heat shield today, using a laser on the end of a long boom to look for signs of damage on the ship's nose cap and wing leading edge panels.


The shuttle's robotm arm lifts inspection boom out of the payload bay early today. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
 
An identical inspection was carried out Sept. 10, the day after launch, to make sure the most critical parts of the heat shield came through the climb to space in good condition. Today's inspection was designed to make sure no space debris or micrometeoroids hit the shuttle unnoticed while docked with the international space station.

"The first one is obviously geared towards any debris which came off during ascent and may have hit the orbiter," commander Brent Jett said in a NASA interview. "There's a second threat to your thermal protection system, and that is from micrometeorite damage. It's a threat we deal with on every mission."

Heat shield inspections are carried out using a 50-foot-long boom attached to the end of the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm. A laser scanner and a high-resolution camera are mounted on the end of the orbiter boom sensor system to look for signs of damage to the reinforced carbon carbon material making up the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels. Those areas experience the most extreme heating during re-entry, some 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

"There's an analysis done that gives you the probability of being struck by a micrometeorite," Jett said. "It all depends on what attitude you're flying and what orbit you're flying in. The thought is that if you inspect early in the mission for ascent debris, you might want to inspect late in the mission to see if you've sustained any damage from a micrometeorite hit on the RCC, a critical area of the orbiter."

Along with carrying out the heat shield inspection, Jett and his crewmates - pilot Chris Ferguson, flight engineer Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Canadian Steve MacLean and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper - also plan to begin initial packing for re-entry and landing Wednesday. Cabin stow will begin in earnest Tuesday, when the astronauts also will test the shuttle's re-entry systems.

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time):


TIME/EDT        DD      HH      MM      EVENT

02:20 AM     08   15   05   Orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) unberth
03:25 AM     08   16   10   OBSS starboard wing leading edge survey
04:15 AM     08   17   00   Cabin stow begins
04:55 AM     08   17   40   OBSS nose cap survey
06:25 AM     08   19   10   Crew meal
07:25 AM     08   20   10   OBSS port wing leading edge survey
08:00 AM     08   20   45   Mission status briefing on NASA TV
08:55 AM     08   21   40   OBSS berthing
09:30 AM     08   22   15   Robot arm berthing and powerdown
10:15 AM     08   23   00   Laser dynamic range imager downlink
01:20 PM     09   02   05   NC-7 rocket firing
02:15 PM     09   03   00   Crew sleep begins
03:00 PM     09   03   45   Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV
08:28 PM     09   09   13   Progress cargo ship undocks from ISS
10:15 PM     09   11   00   Crew wakeup

Atlantis undocked from the space station early Sunday to make way for arrival of the lab's next commander and flight engineer, Mike Lopez-Alegria and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. The Expedition 14 crew members, along with space tourist Anousheh Ansari, blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:09 a.m. EDT today aboard the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft.

If all goes well, they will dock with the station at 1:24 a.m. Wednesday, just a few hours before Atlantis is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center.

Ansari will return to Earth on Sept. 28 with the station's outgoing crew, Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer Jeff Williams. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, ferried to the station aboard the shuttle Discovery in July, will remain aboard the outpost as part of the Expedition 14 crew until December, when he will return to Earth with the crew of the next shuttle assembly mission.

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Additional coverage for subscribers:
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VIDEO: STATION BACKDROPPED BY BLACK SPACE PLAY
VIDEO: STATION SLIDES BY EARTH'S HORIZON PLAY
VIDEO: SPACE STATION FLYAROUND BY ATLANTIS PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS UNDOCKS FROM THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: HATCHWAY CLOSED FOR UNDOCKING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ASTRONAUTS BID FAREWELL PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DIRECTOR EXPLAINS UNDOCKING PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH AS SEEN BY HIGH-ALTITUDE WB-57 AIRCRAFT PLAY
VIDEO: SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER CAM: STARBOARD INWARD PLAY
VIDEO: SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER CAM: STARBOARD UPWARD PLAY
VIDEO: SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER CAM: STARBOARD DOWNWARD PLAY
VIDEO: SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER CAM: PORT INWARD PLAY
VIDEO: SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER CAM: PORT UPWARD PLAY
VIDEO: SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER CAM: PORT DOWNWARD PLAY

VIDEO: FIRST SOLAR WING DEPLOYED HALF-WAY PLAY
VIDEO: SECOND SOLAR WING EXTENDED ONE SECTION PLAY
VIDEO: FIRST SOLAR WING EXTENDED ONE SECTION PLAY

VIDEO: POST-EVA 2 STATUS BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: PORT 3/PORT 4 TRUSS KEEL PIN REMOVED AND STOWED PLAY
VIDEO: HELMETCAM OF BURBANK REMOVING SARJ RESTRAINT PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKERS PAUSE FOR PICTURE TIME PLAY
VIDEO: STEVE MACLEAN REPORTS LOST BOLT PLAY
VIDEO: ROTARY JOINT LOCK REMOVED BY SPACEWALKER PLAY
VIDEO: STEP-BY-STEP PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 2 PLAY
VIDEO: POST-EVA 1 STATUS BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: TANNER LOSES BOLT DURING ROTARY JOINT WORK PLAY
VIDEO: PIPER UNFOLDS SOLAR BLANKET BOXES SHORT | FULL
VIDEO: SECOND WING'S STRUCTURE DEPLOYED BY PIPER PLAY
VIDEO: FIRST SOLAR WING'S STRUCTURE DEPLOYED BY TANNER PLAY
VIDEO: STEP-BY-STEP PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 1 PLAY
VIDEO: TRUSS HANDED FROM SHUTTLE ARM TO STATION ARM PLAY
VIDEO: ARM MANEUVERS TRUSS OVER SHUTTLE WING PLAY
VIDEO: TRUSS SLOWLY LIFTED OUT OF PAYLOAD BAY PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS' ARM GRAPPLES THE TRUSS PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: ATLANTIS WELCOMED ABOARD THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: DOCKING REPLAY FROM CAMERA ON SHUTTLE ARM PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ATLANTIS DOCKS TO THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS' BREATH-TAKING FLIP MANEUVER PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S CAMCORDER FOOTAGE OF EXTERNAL TANK PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION PREVIEWING TRUSS UNBERTHING PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION PREVIEWING THE DOCKING PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF PAYLOAD BAY CONFIGURATION PLAY
MORE: STS-115 VIDEO COVERAGE
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VIDEO: BRIEFING ON TANK'S PERFORMANCE DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: TANK'S ONBOARD CAMERA LIFTOFF TO SEPARATION PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DIRECTOR EXPLAINS INSPECTIONS PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND

VIDEO: LAUNCH OF ATLANTIS! PLAY
VIDEO: SHEDDING FOAM MAY HAVE HIT ATLANTIS PLAY
VIDEO: ONBOARD VIEW OF EXTERNAL TANK SEPARATION PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: STATION CREW TOLD VISITORS EN ROUTE PLAY
VIDEO: HOUSTON RADIOS DEBRIS REPORT TO CREW PLAY
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: QUICK-LOOK BRIEFING ON DEBRIS DIAL-UP | BROADBAND

LAUNCH REPLAYS:
VIDEO: BEACH MOUND TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: CAMERA IN FRONT OF PAD PLAY
VIDEO: BANANA CREEK VIEWING SITE PLAY
VIDEO: VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: PAD 39B SIDE PERIMETER PLAY
VIDEO: PLAYALINDA BEACH TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: PLAYALINDA BEACH ZOOM PLAY
VIDEO: UCS 23 TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: UCS 11 TRACKER PLAY

VIDEO: MISSION SPECIALIST 4 STEVE MACLEAN BOARDS ATLANTIS PLAY
VIDEO: MISSION SPECIALIST 3 HEIDE PIPER BOARDS PLAY
VIDEO: MISSION SPECIALIST 2 DAN BURBANK BOARDS PLAY
VIDEO: MISSION SPECIALIST 1 JOE TANNER BOARDS PLAY
VIDEO: PILOT CHRIS FERGUSON BOARDS PLAY
VIDEO: COMMANDER BRENT JETT BOARDS PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS EMERGE FROM CREW QUARTERS PLAY
VIDEO: CREW SUITS UP FOR LAUNCH TO SPACE PLAY
VIDEO: FINAL INSPECTION TEAM CHECKS ATLANTIS PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS READY FOR SECOND LAUNCH TRY PLAY
MORE: STS-115 VIDEO COVERAGE
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STS-115 patch
The official crew patch for the STS-115 mission of space shuttle Atlantis to resume orbital construction of the International Space Station.
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