Problems in shuttle launch being evaluated

Problems in shuttle launch being evaluated

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla - NASA says Friday’s launch of the space shuttle Endeavour went smoothly despite two problems discovered after a flawless takeoff. Endeavour lifted off at 7:55 p.m. ET on Friday in a rare nighttime launch en route to the international space station.

Endeavour lifted off at 7:55 p.m. ET on Friday in a rare nighttime launch en route to the international space station.

On this mission astronauts will increase the station's living space with room for six instead of the current three. They will install more places to sleep, another bathroom, a better water system, more exercise equipment and a bigger refrigerator.

Mission managers first believed a piece of thermal blanket came loose from the shuttle shortly after launch. The blanket was about 4 inches wide and 12 to 18 inches long, and managers thought it came from an area that is "not of great concern" in terms of protecting the shuttle during the intense heat of takeoff and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

However, NASA said Sunday that debris seen about 26 seconds into Friday's launch did not hit Endeavour, and that the debris wasn't one of the shuttle's thermal blankets as mission managers initially feared.

"We've determined that all of our thermal protection system blankets are intact in that area, so we're continuing to look at what that debris source might have been. The candidate is probably ice," mission management team chairman LeRoy Cain said.

Aboard Endeavour on Saturday, astronauts Eric Boe, Don Pettit and Shane Kimbrough were using the shuttle's robotic arm to look at its wings and nosecap to check for any damage to the thermal-protection system. Those areas are the most vulnerable to heat damage.

It was a gash on the wing of space shuttle Columbia that caused its destruction and the deaths of seven astronauts during re-entry February 1, 2003.

The shuttle's other problem involves a balky antenna that could affect radar and communications. NASA's Leroy Cain said that the problem would affect the mission's ground crew more than the astronauts and that it most likely came from problems with a software upgrade.