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Crew awakened for evening of heat shield inspections BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: March 11, 2008 The Endeavour astronauts were awakened today at 4:29 p.m. to begin their first full day in space. Heat shield inspections are planned, along with spacesuit check outs, rendezvous preps and a pair of rocket firings to fine tune the shuttle's approach to the international space station. At crew wakeup, the shuttle was about 1,000 miles behind the lab complex, on course for docking Wednesday night. Engineers on the ground, meanwhile, are analyzing launch imagery to identify any possible ascent debris strikes from falling external tank foam insulation or other sources. Just before the crew went to bed earlier today, flight controllers reported a possible debris impact event about 10 seconds after launch. Another possible debris event was noted at 83 seconds into flight but no impact was observed. Endeavour took off at 2:28:14 a.m. and given the reduced lighting with a night launch, the astronauts will rely more on detailed orbital inspections to verify the health of the ship's heat shield than would be the case for a daylight ascent. The astronauts were awakened by a recording of "Linus and Lucy" from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" beamed up from mission control in Houston for shuttle flight engineer Mike Foreman. "Good morning, Endeavour. And a special good morning to you, Mike," astronaut Al Drew radioed from the Johnson Space Center. "Well good morning, Houston, we appreciate that song," Foreman replied. "We had an exciting trip to orbit yesterday morning and we're looking forward to our first full day in orbit." The major activity in space today is a detailed inspection of Endeavour's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry. The astronauts also will use cameras on the shuttle's robot arm to inspect tiles protecting the upper surfaces of the shuttle, including two aft rocket pods. The possible impact event at T-plus 10 seconds occurred in the nose area of the shuttle, but nothing obvious could be seen in the launch video from NASA television. For today's inspections, commander Dominic Gorie, pilot Gregory Johnson and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi will use the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm and the equally long orbiter boom sensor system, or OBSS, mounted along the right side of Endeavour's cargo bay. The OBSS is equipped with a laser scanner and high-resolution cameras capable of spotting any significant impact damage to the critical nose cap and wing leading edge panels. "We're all operating the shuttle's robotic arm and we'll first grapple the OBSS, the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, and it about doubles the length of the arm," Johnson said in a NASA interview. "Then we can reach around and look underneath the orbiter and check out all the tiles and the reinforced carbon carbon and we can also reach around and look at the nose of the shuttle. It's an all-day task." While the heat shield inspection is going on, the other crew members will check out the spacesuits that will be used for station assembly spacewalks later in the mission, test the handheld lasers and other gear needed for the station rendezvous and rig the ship for docking. A mission status briefing is planned for 2 a.m. Wednesday on NASA television. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; supercedes revision A of the NASA television schedule; briefing times are unchanged): EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Tue 04:28 PM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup Tue 06:33 PM...00...16...05...Shuttle robot arm (SRMS) checkout Tue 07:08 PM...00...16...40...Laptop computer setup (part 2) Tue 07:46 PM...00...17...18...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing Tue 07:53 PM...00...17...25...SRMS unberths OBSS inspection boom Tue 08:08 PM...00...17...40...Spacesuit checkout preps Tue 08:28 PM...00...18...00...Ergometer setup Tue 08:38 PM...00...18...10...Spacesuit checkout Tue 09:08 PM...00...18...40...OBSS starboard wing survey Tue 10:28 PM...00...20...00...Crew meal Tue 11:03 PM...00...20...35...OBSS nose cap survey Tue 11:28 PM...00...21...00...EVA equipment prepped for transfer to station 03/12/08 Wed 12:53 AM...00...22...25...OBSS port wing survey Wed 12:58 AM...00...22...30...Logistics transfer preps Wed 02:00 AM...00...23...32...Mission status briefing on NASA TV Wed 02:28 AM...01...00...00...OMS rocket pod survey Wed 02:28 AM...01...00...00...Centerline camera setup in docking system Wed 02:53 AM...01...00...25...SRMS berths OBSS Wed 02:58 AM...01...00...30...Orbiter docking system ring extension Wed 03:13 AM...01...00...45...Laser data downlink Wed 03:38 AM...01...01...10...Rendezvous tools checkout Wed 04:58 AM...01...02...30...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing Wed 08:03 AM...01...05...35...Crew sleep begins Wed 09:00 AM...01...06...32...Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV
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VIDEO:
ANIMATION OF THE HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS 