Strange Object Forces Postponement of Shuttle Landing

Space Shuttle Atlantis Pilot Chris Ferguson (L) and Atlantis Commander Brent Jett review landing procedures on the flight deck in this view from NASA TV September 19, 2006.

SEE THE DOT IN THE MIDDLE.

HOUSTON — 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.
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.
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.
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.
They also participated in a rare conference call with two other spacecraft also currently in orbit.
"It's a little crowded in the sky this morning," said Jeff Williams, a resident of the international space station the shuttle undocked from on Sunday after delivering and installing a solar panel addition.
"We were wondering if we had to hire some more air traffic controllers for the increased traffic up here," responded Michael Lopez-Alegria from the Russian Soyuz capsule that launched from Kazakhstan on Monday. He's part of the team that will be taking over from Williams' crew.
During the 10-minute conversation, while the space station and shuttle hovered over Australia and the capsule over the Black Sea, the astronauts reminisced about their time together, the times to come and the latest drama in the cosmos.
The three space station astronauts pulled an alarm and donned protective gear after an Elektron oxygen generator overheated Monday, spreading smoke and a burned-rubber smell and leaking potassium hydroxide, an irritant that is used to power batteries.
NASA said the leak was not life-threatening, and the crew cleaned up the spill.
"We're sorry you guys had to go through that but, yeah, we're kind of glad we weren't there and we want you all to know that we didn't touch the Elektron," Atlantis commander Brent Jett joked to Williams.
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 to launch in 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.
Preliminary results from the inspection look very good, Tony Antonelli from Mission Control in Houston told the astronauts.
NASA studies the images for any damage that might jeopardize the shuttle's re-entry..
NASA could call up Edwards Air Force Base in California for a Friday or Saturday landing.
Because it would cost $1.7 million and days of delay to ferry the shuttle back to Kennedy Space Center after an Edwards landing, NASA will try to land only in Florida on Wednesday and Thursday, unless the weather forecast changes, Stich said.
The shuttle must land somewhere by the end of Saturday, because that's when Atlantis will run out of chemicals that take carbon dioxide out of the air supply, Stich said.
Asked by a television reporter in his hometown of Philadelphia if he had any messages for his family, pilot Chris Ferguson said: "Keep your fingers crossed that the weather's nice tomorrow."
Atlantis woke up Tuesday to a recording of Celine Dion's "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi" (Don't Leave Without Me), dedicated to Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean.
"You guys are probably sad to be heading home but it'll be nice to have a cold beer and a shower," Lopez-Alegria said, laughing.

"It's been real short for us," Jett replied. "It's kind of funny — you guys are just starting a really long journey in space and our really short one is quickly coming to an end, much sooner than we'd like."