Astronauts prepare for Shuttle patch-up
Space shuttle astronauts will attempt to repair Atlantis' damaged heat shield during a spacewalk on Friday, using staples to try to pin down a loose thermal blanket.
"They decided to do the repair on the third spacewalk on Friday," NASA spokesman Kyle Herring said after emerging from a management meeting at Houston's Johnson Space Centre.
The preferred method will be surgical stapling and pinning back in place the piece of heat-shield blanket that pulled loose from an engine pod as the shuttle launched on Friday for a construction mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The decision was made as two astronauts carried out a lengthy spacewalk on Thursday to work on expanding the station's solar-powered electrical system.
The US space agency has been meticulous about monitoring and maintaining the condition of shuttle heat shields since Columbia disintegrated during its return to Earth in 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The blanket problem is small, a 10cm-by-15cm gap near the rear of the shuttle, and is not considered a serious threat, but managers want to avoid risking minor shuttle damage during the fiery re-entry into the atmosphere for landing.
NASA needs all three remaining shuttles in good shape to complete 12 more space station construction missions by 2010 when the shuttles are scheduled to be retired.
Plans call for one astronaut to do the repair work while standing on the shuttle's robot arm. If stapling and pinning do not work, sewing would be the next alternative, Herring said.
What originally was planned as an 11-day mission to boost power at the station has been extended by two days to assure the repairs can be done prior to landing.
A fourth spacewalk already has been planned for Sunday and could be used to finish if necessary.