CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Atlantis astronauts uncovered a 21-inch stretch of nicks on their space shuttle Tuesday, but NASA said the damage did not appear to be serious.
The damage was likely the result of debris that came off the fuel tank shortly after liftoff Monday. The astronauts were inspecting their ship while racing to the Hubble Space Telescope when they came across the nicks spread over thermal tiles.
A photo shows what appears to be about 10 white scuff marks — officials hadn’t counted how many yet — around the edge of the shuttle where the right wing joins the fuselage and the belly curves up to the top of Atlantis.
"It doesn’t look very serious,” Mission Control said. "Those tiles are pretty thick. The nicks look to be pretty small.”
This repair mission is especially risky — a rescue shuttle is on standby for the first time — because of the debris-littered orbit of Hubble.
NASA managers weren’t too worried Tuesday, saying this type of damage looks similar to nicks seen in the past five or six missions that were safe.
Atlantis will catch up with Hubble today. The astronauts will capture the aging observatory and, the next day, begin the first of five grueling spacewalks to install equipment and repair instruments.
by the associated press
The damage was likely the result of debris that came off the fuel tank shortly after liftoff Monday. The astronauts were inspecting their ship while racing to the Hubble Space Telescope when they came across the nicks spread over thermal tiles.
A photo shows what appears to be about 10 white scuff marks — officials hadn’t counted how many yet — around the edge of the shuttle where the right wing joins the fuselage and the belly curves up to the top of Atlantis.
"It doesn’t look very serious,” Mission Control said. "Those tiles are pretty thick. The nicks look to be pretty small.”
This repair mission is especially risky — a rescue shuttle is on standby for the first time — because of the debris-littered orbit of Hubble.
NASA managers weren’t too worried Tuesday, saying this type of damage looks similar to nicks seen in the past five or six missions that were safe.
Atlantis will catch up with Hubble today. The astronauts will capture the aging observatory and, the next day, begin the first of five grueling spacewalks to install equipment and repair instruments.
by the associated press
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