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Astronauts begin work to inspect damaged shuttle tile
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: May 21, 2011


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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The shuttle Endeavour's crew began work early Saturday to carry out a close-up, focused inspection of a damaged heat shield tile on the belly of the orbiter to help engineers determine whether the ship can safely re-enter Earth's atmosphere as is or whether more analysis or repairs might be needed. NASA managers do not believe the "area of interest" poses a safety threat, but the inspection was ordered to make sure.


An illustration shows the sensor boom under Endeavour for the "focused inspection" work. Credit: NASA TV
 
Because of clearance issues, the space station's robot arm was used to pull Endeavour's heat shield inspection boom, or OBSS, out of the ship's cargo bay for hand off to the shuttle's 50-foot-long arm. Pilot Gregory Johnson, overseeing a series of computerized maneuvers, plans to position the arm under the shuttle's right side for close-up photos and laser scans to precisely measure the dimensions and depth of the gouge.

The data will be downlinked to the Johnson Space Center in Houston where NASA's Damage Assessment Team will be standing by to carry out a detailed evaluation. The damaged tile, located between the right main landing gear door and a liquid oxygen feed line port, is the only area of concern with the shuttle's heat shield that has not yet been cleared for entry.

At 7:11 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), the astronauts plan to take a call from Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. The shuttle-station crew includes two Italians -- station flight engineer Paolo Nespoli and Endeavour flight engineer Roberto Vittori -- and the VIP call will be the first from a pope to an orbiting spacecraft.

The rest of the crew's day will be devoted to making preparations for a spacewalk Sunday by astronauts Andrew Feustel and Michael Fincke to recharge a solar array ammonia coolant reservoir.

The shuttle crew is scheduled to go to bed at 1:26 p.m. with a wakeup call expected at 9:26 p.m. A mission status briefing is planned for 11:30 a.m. followed by a Mission Management Team update at 4 p.m. to review the focused inspection.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day six (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision E of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):


DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

05/20
09:26 PM...04...12...30...00...STS crew wakeup

05/21
12:31 AM...04...15...35...00...Station arm (SSRMS) grapples inspection boom (OBSS)
12:56 AM...04...16...00...00...OBSS unberth
01:11 AM...04...16...15...00...Quick-disconnect mod
01:21 AM...04...16...25...00...OBSS handoff to shuttle arm (SRMS)
01:36 AM...04...16...40...00...SSRMS ungrapple
02:01 AM...04...17...05...00...ISS crew wakeup
02:11 AM...04...17...15...00...SRMS maneuver review
02:41 AM...04...17...45...00...Focused inspection begins
03:01 AM...04...18...05...00...ISS daily planning conference
03:41 AM...04...18...45...00...REBA checkout
03:56 AM...04...19...00...00...EVA-2: Equipment lock preps
04:26 AM...04...19...30...00...Crew meals begin
04:41 AM...04...19...45...00...Focused inspection ends
05:41 AM...04...20...45...00...Laser scan (LDRI) downlink
07:11 AM...04...22...15...00...PAO event (Pope Benedict XVI calls shuttle crew)
07:31 AM...04...22...35...00...EVA-2: Tools configured
08:36 AM...04...23...40...00...LDRI downlink
09:21 AM...05...00...25...00...EVA-2: Procedures review
10:00 AM...05...01...04...00...Replay of PAO event with Pope Benedict XVI
11:30 AM...05...02...34...00...Mission status briefing on NTV
11:51 AM...05...02...55...00...EVA-2: Mask pre-breathe
12:36 PM...05...03...40...00...EVA-2: Airlock depress to 10.2 psi
12:56 PM...05...04...00...00...Garan sleep begins
01:26 PM...05...04...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
02:00 PM...05...05...04...00...Replay of PAO event with Pope Benedict XVI
03:16 PM...05...06...20...00...ISS evening planning conference
04:00 PM...05...07...04...00...Mission Management Team briefing on NTV
05:31 PM...05...08...35...00...ISS crew sleep begins
06:45 PM...05...09...49...00...Flight director update on NTV
08:45 PM...05...11...49...00...Flight director update replay on NTV
09:26 PM...05...12...30...00...STS crew/Garan wakeup

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