







Astronauts give Endeavour full post-launch inspection

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION

Posted: February 9, 2010



The shuttle Endeavour's crew worked through the early morning hours Tuesday carrying out a detailed inspection of the ship's critical nose cap and wing leading edge panels. While it will take engineers another few days to fully assess laser scans and photography, no obvious problems were seen in the initial stages of the heat shield inspection.

Credit: NASA TV



"So far, the crew has been doing very well on orbit, they've been adjusting fairly nicely and we've been pretty much on the pace with respect to execution of the timeline," said lead Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho. "We're looking forward to rendezvous and docking tomorrow (with the International Space Station)." Carrying a new habitation module and a seven-pane cupola that will provide bay window views of Earth and approaching spacecraft, Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the space station around 12:06 a.m. EST Wednesday. Three spacewalks are planned to install and outfit the new module and cupola. Early Tuesday, astronauts Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick inspected and checked out their spacesuits and found no problems. Overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning, their crewmates used a 50-foot-long instrument boom on the end of the shuttle's robot arm to inspect the ship's carbon composite nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry. During launch early Monday, a camera mounted on the side of the shuttle's external tank showed a strip of foam insulation falling away about two minutes after liftoff. Based on a quick view of the shuttle's belly when Endeavour separated from the tank, there were no obvious signs of any impact damage. During final approach to the station late Tuesday, commander George Zamka will flip Endeavour over in a now-routine post-Columbia procedure that will allow the station astronauts to carry out a detailed photo survey of the protective heat shield tiles on the shuttle's belly. "So far, there is nothing that has been brought to my attention aside from the few pieces of foam we saw yesterday that would give us pause," Alibaruho said. "The data that we've seen so far in the RCC (reinforced carbon carbon) inspections of the wings and nose cap, so far that data looks in family with the things we typically see. Obviously, the engineers are going to be doing their analysis through the night to come up with some formal conclusions. But we haven't noticed anything that really pokes out at us as being a significant concern. "We're looking forward to getting the (rendezvous pitch maneuver) imagery from tomorrow," he said. "Obviously, that'll give us some more data on some areas of the spacecraft that we haven't looked at yet."

Additional coverage for subscribers:

VIDEO: AMAZING LAUNCH FOOTAGE FROM COCKPIT CAMERA PLAY



VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF WING INSPECTIONS PLAY

VIDEO: INSPECTION BOOM READIED FOR USE PLAY

VIDEO: PREVIEW OF FLIGHT DAY 2 ACTIVITIES PLAY

VIDEO: NARRATED TOUR OF ENDEAVOUR'S PAYLOAD BAY PLAY



VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY

VIDEO: THE FULL STS-130 LAUNCH EXPERIENCE PLAY

VIDEO: SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR BLASTS OFF! PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: GO BEHIND THE SCENES IN MISSION CONTROL PLAY

VIDEO: JETTISONED EXTERNAL FUEL TANK TUMBLES AWAY PLAY

VIDEO: PAYLOAD BAY DOORS OPENED FOLLOWING LAUNCH PLAY



VIDEO: CREW FINISHES GETTING SUITED UP PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS LEAVE CREW QUARTERS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS BOARD THEIR SPACECRAFT PLAY



VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: BEACH TRACKER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD CAMERA 070 PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD CAMERA 071 PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 TRACKER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PLAYALINDA BEACH PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD FRONT CAMERA PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: BANANA CREEK SITE PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: NARRATED REVIEW OF SHUTTLE'S PREPARATIONS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: NARRATED REVIEW OF PAYLOADS' PREPARATIONS PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: EXPLANATION OF WEATHER PROBLEMS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LOW CLOUDS SCRUB FIRST COUNTDOWN PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DEPART QUARTERS FOR PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CREW GETS SUITED UP FOR LAUNCH ATTEMPT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PAD SERVICE GANTRY RETRACTED PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF MOBILE TOWER ROLLBACK PLAY



VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH COMMANDER GEORGE ZAMKA PLAY

VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH PILOT TERRY VIRTS PLAY

VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 1 KAY HIRE PLAY

VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 2 STEVE ROBINSON PLAY

VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 3 NICK PATRICK PLAY

VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 4 BOB BEHNKEN PLAY



VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR'S PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY

VIDEO: THURSDAY STATUS AND WEATHER UPDATE PLAY

VIDEO: COUNTDOWN PREVIEW BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: LAUNCH DATE SET AT FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PLAY

VIDEO: PAYLOAD BAY DOORS CLOSED FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CREW SEES TRANQUILITY LOADED INTO SHUTTLE PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: SHUTTLE EVACUATION PRACTICE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS BOARD ENDEAVOUR PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: THE LAUNCH DAY SIMULATION BEGINS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PAD BUNKER TRAINING FOR THE CREW PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CREW BRIEFED ON EMERGENCY PROCEDURES PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: TEST-DRIVING AN EMERGENCY ARMORED TANK PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: NIGHTTIME APPROACHES IN TRAINING AIRCRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS CHAT WITH REPORTERS AT PAD 39A PLAY

VIDEO: SPACEWALKER UPDATES COOLING HOSE FIX PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ROBINSON'S THOUGHTS ON SHUTTLE RETIREMENT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: TRANQUILITY DELIVERED TO PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PAYLOAD TRANSPORTER GOES UPRIGHT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PACKING UP PAYLOAD FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR'S FRIGID ROLLOUT TO PAD PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO TANK PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CRANE ROTATES THE ORBITER VERTICALLY PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR MOVES TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE SHOWS ENDEAVOUR ASCENDING IN VAB PLAY

VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE SHOWS THE MOVE TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY



VIDEO: ORBITER READY TO LEAVE HANGAR PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK ATTACHED TO BOOSTERS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR'S MAIN ENGINE INSTALLATION PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS VISIT THEIR SPACECRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CREW INSPECTS MISSION PAYLOADS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: FUEL TANK UNLOADED FROM THE BARGE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK ARRIVES AT SPACEPORT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: FORWARD THRUSTER POD CHECKED OUT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR TOWED OFF RUNWAY FROM STS-127 PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: TRANQUILITY HATCH SEALED FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CUPOLA ATTACHED TO TRANQUILITY PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: THE SPACE STATION'S NEW CUPOLA PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: TRANQUILITY UNPACKED IN FLORIDA PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: NEW MODULE ARRIVES FROM EUROPE PLAY | HI-DEF

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