Spaceflight Now





Astronauts to give Atlantis full post-launch inspection
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: May 15, 2010


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The Atlantis astronauts, awakened at 4:20 a.m. EDT to begin their first full day in space, plan to inspect the shuttle's carbon composite nose cap and wing leading edge panels Saturday and to check out equipment needed for upcoming spacewalks. Two rendezvous rocket firings are planned to fine tune the shuttle's approach to the International Space Station for a docking Sunday morning.


Credit: NASA TV
 
Space station flight controllers, meanwhile, are continuing to discuss a possible debris avoidance maneuver to increase the distance between the lab complex and a piece of space junk expected to fly past Sunday morning. If additional radar tracking indicates an avoidance maneuver is needed, it likely would be carried out remotely during crew sleep Saturday evening. A decision one way or the other is expected by 5 p.m.

The heat shield inspection, standard fare for post-Columbia shuttle crews, uses an instrumented 50-foot-long boom attached to the end of the ship's robot arm to scan the nose cap and wing leading edge panels to look for any signs of impact damage that might have occurred during the climb to space.

"Back in those first couple (post-Columbia) flights when they were doing this, this was considered a very difficult and unique robotics maneuver so a lot of attention was spent on it," commander Ken Ham said in a NASA interview. "Since those flights, we've flown a bunch more. We've a lot more confidence in how this works and at the risk of sounding cavalier ... that task is now almost considered somewhat mundane.

The heat shield inspection will be carried out by Ham, pilot Dominic Antonelli, Piers Sellers and Garrett Reisman. Crewmates Michael Good and Stephen Bowen will spend part of the day checking out spacesuits and other equipment needed for upcoming station assembly spacewalks. Later this afternoon, Reisman and Bowen will make sure the crew's rendezvous tools are set up for docking Sunday around 10:27 a.m.

"It's a little bit of a long day, a long inspection," Antonelli said of the heat shield examination. "We'll use the space shuttle's robotic (arm), and we'll pick up what we'll call the 'boom.' On the end of that there's a still camera, a laser camera and then also a video camera. We're going to use that to inspect the leading edge of both wings and the nose.

"It's a long series of automated robotic procedures. We'll put the arm and the boom in a starting configuration, hit 'go,' and it should run through an auto sequence kind of thing to scan the leading edge of the wings. We have to do the top, the front and the bottom so it'll be several of these in a row, and it'll take most of the day. We'll (take) turns either flying the arm or running the checklist or keeping the extra computers and data recording going. It's kind of a three-person job. Then we'll rotate out because it's a bit of a long day."

A mission status briefing is planned for 2 p.m., followed by a post-Mission Management Team briefing at 4 p.m. to provide a status report on the progress of work to access the shuttle's overall health following Friday's launch.

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision A of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):


EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

05/15
04:20 AM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup
06:25 AM...00...16...05...OMS pod survey
06:45 AM...00...16...25...Ergometer setup
07:15 AM...00...16...55...Shuttle arm (SRMS) unberths inspection boom (OBSS)
07:20 AM...00...17...00...Window 4 minicam downlink
07:14 AM...00...17...13...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing
07:40 AM...00...17...20...Spacesuit checkout preps
07:45 AM...00...17...25...SAFER emergency jetpack checkout
08:10 AM...00...17...50...Spacesuit checkout
08:30 AM...00...18...10...OBSS starboard wing survey
10:10 AM...00...19...50...Crew meals begin
10:15 AM...00...19...55...Middeck transfer preps
10:35 AM...00...20...15...OBSS nose cap survey
11:10 AM...00...20...50...Spacesuit prepped for transfer to station
12:25 PM...00...22...05...OBSS port wing survey
02:00 PM...00...23...40...Mission status briefing on NTV
02:40 PM...01...00...20...SRMS berths OBSS
02:45 PM...01...00...25...Rendezvous tools checkout
03:15 PM...01...00...55...Laser scan data (LDRI) downlink
03:55 PM...01...01...35...Centerline camera setup
04:00 PM...01...01...40...Post-MMT briefing on NTV
04:25 PM...01...02...05...Orbiter docking system ring extension
05:35 PM...01...03...15...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing
07:20 PM...01...05...00...Crew sleep begins
08:00 PM...01...05...40...Daily highlights reel on NTV


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VIDEO: ATLANTIS' FIRST MISSION ENDS WITH LAKEBED LANDING PLAY
VIDEO: AN ASTRONAUT'S TRIBUTE TO SHUTTLE ATLANTIS PLAY

VIDEO: COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER FORECAST PLAY
VIDEO: WATCH NASA'S PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: GET BRIEFED ON THE LAUNCH COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO: HEAR FROM THE COMMANDER AT THE RUNWAY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE IN FLORIDA FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH KEN HAM PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH TONY ANTONELLI PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH GARRETT REISMAN PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH MIKE GOOD PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH STEVE BOWEN PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH PIERS SELLERS PLAY

VIDEO: STS-132 MISSION PREVIEW MOVIE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: FULL FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW NEWS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: RECAP OF THE FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: MANAGERS ASSESS ISSUES BEFORE FLIGHT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: UPDATE ON PRE-LAUNCH PREPS AT PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PROGRAM BRIEFING BY SHUTTLE AND STATION CHIEFS PLAY
VIDEO: THE STS-132 MISSION OVERVIEW PRESENTATIONS PLAY
VIDEO: PREVIEW BRIEFING ON MISSION'S SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: THE ASTRONAUTS' PRE-FLIGHT NEWS BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: SHUTTLE EVACUATION PRACTICE PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS BOARD ATLANTIS PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: LAUNCH DAY REHEARSAL BEGINS PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CREW BRIEFED ON EMERGENCY PROCEDURES PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: TEST-DRIVING AN EMERGENCY ARMORED TANK PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CREW'S CHAT WITH REPORTERS AT PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER RUNWAY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: GANTRY PLACED AROUND ATLANTIS PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ATLANTIS REACHES PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CROWDS AND THE CREW CHEER ON ATLANTIS PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: OVERNIGHT ROLLOUT TO THE PAD BEGINS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: SHUTTLE HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO TANK PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CRANE ROTATES THE ORBITER VERTICALLY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ATLANTIS RISES OFF THE TRANSPORTER PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ORBITER EMERGES FROM ITS HANGAR PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: BUTTONING UP RUDDER/SPEED BRAKE PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: DOME SHIELDS AROUND MAIN ENGINES PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK ATTACHED TO BOOSTERS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PAYLOADS HEAD FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: RASSVET PLACED INTO THE TRANSPORTER PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: PALLET LOADED WITH MISSION'S CARGO PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: RUSSIAN RASSVET MODULE ON DISPLAY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: RUSSIAN ENGINEERS DISCUSS THEIR RASSVET MODULE PLAY
VIDEO: RASSVET HATCH CLOSED FOR FLIGHT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: FILLING MODULE WITH NASA SUPPLIES PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS VISIT THEIR SPACECRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CREW INSPECTS RASSVET MODULE PLAY | HI-DEF
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