Mystery Object Delays Return for Space Shuttle
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mystery Object Delays Return for Space Shuttle*
Sep 19, 2:23 PM (ET)
By RASHA MADKOUR
HOUSTON (AP) - NASA delayed the planned landing of space shuttle
Atlantis by at least a day Tuesday after engineers spotted an object
that may have accidentally flown out of its cargo bay.
Landing had been scheduled for Wednesday morning. But a poor weather
forecast and concerns that something crucial floated out of the craft
prompted the delay, space shuttle communicator Terry Virts told the crew.
"Big interest in whether we're going to be doing any robotics tomorrow,"
responded Atlantis commander Brent Jett, referring to using the
shuttle's robotic arm to inspect the spacecraft.
NASA engineers think the object may have shook loose from the shuttle
during the firing of jets in preparation for landing. NASA managers may
order Atlantis' robotic arm to be taken out again for an inspection, and
the space agency hasn't ruled out the possibility of having the crew
return to the space station.
Sensors on the shuttle's right wing detected some kind of impact about
the same time the object was first spotted, but NASA officials said it
was more likely the sensors were triggered by the spacecraft shaking
during the jet firings.
A Russian Soyuz TMA-9 capsule with an Iranian-American
telecommunications entrepreneur, an astronaut and a cosmonaut was
heading to the space station for a docking set for early Wednesday.
Engineers are concerned because they don't know what the object is or
whether it's a crucial piece of the shuttle.
"The question is what is it? Is it something benign? Or is it something
more critical we should pay attention to," said Wayne Hale, space
shuttle program manager. "We want to make sure we're safe before
committing to that critical journey through the atmosphere."
NASA wanted an extra day to do a detailed photographic analysis of the
shuttle and its cargo bay area, NASA spokesman Doug Peterson had said
earlier. Already NASA had been using cameras to scan the cargo area.
(AP) In this image from NASA TV the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Atlantis
is surveyed by video cameras...
Full Image
Astronauts aboard the shuttle were able to take photos of the object and
describe it to Mission Control.
"It's fairly small. ... It was departing away from us, maybe 1 or 2 feet
per second," Jett radioed. "It wasn't rising or falling. ... It was
definitely moving away fairly quickly."
Mission control spotted the baffling object - the size of which was not
immediately determined - with a video camera in the shuttle's cargo bay.
The object, which circled the Earth in the same orbit as the shuttle,
probably came out of the cargo bay around 2:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday because
some jets had just been fired on Atlantis, Peterson said.
"It's something that we didn't expect, but it's something that we're
taking a real close look at," Peterson said. NASA ordered Atlantis to
keep the camera running all night instead of stowing it ahead of the
planned landing attempt as usual.
Even before the problem with the unexplained object surfaced, NASA had
said weather could affect Wednesday's scheduled landing. A storm front
moving through Florida could delay landing from 5:59 a.m., when the sky
would still be dark, until 7:34 a.m. or until Thursday or Friday.
Weather requirements are more stringent for dark sky landings because
they are more difficult.
In preparation for the landing, the Atlantis crew had packed, checked
flight controls - similar to those on an airplane - and test fired small
jets that are used to guide the shuttle. The commander and pilot used
simulations to practice their landing skills.
During their mission, the Atlantis astronauts officially resumed
construction of the international space station after a four-year
hiatus. The 115-foot-long solar wings they added will generate power for
the space station once it's rewired during the next mission, slated for
December.
Progress on the orbiting lab halted after the Columbia disaster in 2003,
when the space shuttle disintegrated while re-entering the Earth's
atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
Since then, NASA has implemented several safety procedures, including
Monday's inspection of the shuttle using a robotic arm with a TV camera
and laser imagery system attached on the end.
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