Space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts geared up for a spacewalk yesterday that NASA said would remain unchanged despite a last-minute switch in crew for medical reasons.
"The only difference is who's going out the hatch," flight director Mike Sarafin said.
The primary purpose of the spacewalk is to help install the European lab, Columbus, that Atlantis ferried to the international space station.
German astronaut Hans Schlegel was initially scheduled to carry out the spacewalk with American Rex Walheim, but was pulled from the job on Saturday because of an undisclosed illness.
Schlegel looked and sounded well on Sunday and was expected to take part in the second spacewalk of the mission tomorrow.
For yesterday's outing, however, American Stanley Love was taking his place.
Schlegel, 56, a physicist and former paratrooper who has seven children, was fine for Thursday's liftoff and became ill in orbit, European Space Agency officials said.
They said that the condition was neither life-threatening nor contagious.
NASA refused to give out any additional details, citing medical privacy.
But it is common knowledge that a majority of astronauts suffer from space motion sickness during their first few days in orbit.
With their flight now 12 days long because of the spacewalk delay, Atlantis' astronauts conducted another survey of a thermal blanket on their ship that has a torn corner.
The stitching came apart at the seams, and the corner pulled up.
Engineers were analyzing the problem to determine whether the blanket would be able to withstand the intense heat during reentry at flight's end, or whether spacewalk repairs might be needed.
The blanket is located on the right orbital maneuvering system pod, back near the shuttle's tail.
NASA is vigilant when it comes to the shuttle's thermal shielding, ever since Columbia was destroyed in 2003 following a foam strike to its wing during launch.
John Shannon, the chairman of the mission management team, said that the thermal covering on the wings, nose and belly of Atlantis were no longer areas of concern and have been cleared for reentry in just over a week.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
A man has survived clinging to the outside of an Austrian high-speed train, Austria’s state railway said on Sunday, reportedly after it left while he was having a cigarette break. The man late on Saturday grabbed onto the outside of the train at St Poelten, west of Vienna, and was later taken onboard after the train performed an emergency stop, railways spokesman Herbert Hofer said. “It is irresponsible, this kind of thing usually ends up with someone dying,” he said. “And you’re not just putting yourself in danger, if you end up under the train there’s rescuers, there’s police, fire
RSS