NASA Plans In-Space Shuttle Repairs

Mission Specialists Jim Reilly and John “Danny” Olivas successfully completed tasks during STS-117’s first spacewalk to activate the International Space Station’s newest component.

During a post-mission management briefing held at 8 PM EDT last night, John Shannon, chair of the Mission Management Team, announced NASA will extend the mission two extra days and add a fourth spacewalk to the mission.

NASA has also announced plans to have astronauts repair a thermal blanket that peeled back during Atlantis's launch. The loosened blanket was discovered during an inspection by the crew, a procedure added to each shuttle flight after the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003. NASA says the two decisions are not related.

While NASA engineers did not believe the extreme heat of reentery would damage the shuttle or risk the lives of the crew, they were concerned it would still require some repair work by ground crews.

"It was a 100 percent consensus that the unknowns of the engineering analysis and the potential damage ... was unacceptable and we should go in and fix it if we could," Shannon said. “I don’t want to take the risk of damaging my flight hardware.”

Image Credit:NASA TV