http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hmAbhsBmFNtUiujxUzpEVl
HxVADgD984OFO01
By MARCIA DUNN - 37 minutes ago
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The Atlantis astronauts inspected their ship
for any signs of launch damage Tuesday as they raced after the Hubble
Space Telescope on an especially perilous and bold repair mission.
Back on Earth, NASA continued prepping another space shuttle to rush to
the astronauts' rescue if any serious damage is found. And over at the
pad used by Atlantis, NASA discovered a surprising amount of damage from
Monday's liftoff.
On their first full day in orbit, Atlantis' crew used a laser-tipped
boom to look for damage during a survey that was expected to take
several hours. Initial photos during the launch indicated that Atlantis
looked fine, but the analysis was continuing.
As the inspection got under way, the shuttle trailed the observatory by
about 8,000 miles.
Atlantis will catch up with Hubble early Wednesday afternoon. The
astronauts will capture the aging observatory and, the next day kick off
the first of five grueling spacewalks to install new cameras and
equipment at Hubble and repair some broken science instruments. Those
two instruments were never meant to be handled by spacewalking
astronauts; telescope managers consider this difficult and have
cautioned everyone that it might not work.
First, though, the seven astronauts have to make sure their spaceship
was unscathed by liftoff. Columbia was doomed by a chunk of fuel-tank
insulation foam that broke off during launch in 2003, and NASA
consequently made shuttle surveys standard procedure.
This final trip to Hubble is also more dangerous because of all the
space junk in the telescope's 350-mile-high orbit. Recent satellite
smashups have added to the litter.
Unlike other space flights, Atlantis doesn't have the international
space station as a shelter if there is damage, which is why shuttle
Endeavour is in place for a rescue mission.
The pad used by Atlantis, meanwhile, suffered more launch damage than
usual. The heat-resistant material that covers the bricks beneath the
pad was blasted off an approximate 25-square-foot area, said NASA
spokesman Allard Beutel. Some nitrogen gas and pressurized air lines
also were damaged.
The damage to the bricked flame trench - which deflect the flames at
booster rocket ignition - occurred near an area that was severely
battered last year. Monday's damage is not nearly as bad, Beutel said.
On the Net:
* NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html
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