Live In Orbit: Astronauts Up For Heat-Shield Survey

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The Endeavour astronauts are up for their first full day in space and aim to inspect shuttle heat shield components -- in particular, its wings and nosecap -- for any damage that might have been done during a rocketing climb into orbit.

Also on tap on NASA TV today: two events related to the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing mission, which blasted off at 9:32 a.m. EDT July 16, 1969. The 40th anniversary of the landing is next Monday.

Mission Control woke the astronauts with "These Are Days" by 10,000 Maniacs. The song was played for Endeavour mission specialist Tim Kopra, who noted, "it's beautiful up here."

"I'll agree with that," spacecraft communicator Shannon Lucid relied from Mission Control.

First up for the astronauts will be a survey of the shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pods -- the humplike pods that straddle the spaceship's tail and house twin engines used primarily to deorbit the shuttle.

That work will begin just before 10 a.m.

At 11 a.m., NASA TV will broadcast a news conference on restored Apollo 11 moonwalk video from the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

The astronauts will limber up the shuttle's sensor-laden orbital inspection boom around 11:30 a.m. and begin a lengthy inspection of the shuttle's composite carbon wing panels and nosecap.

NASA video showed a considerable amount of foam and ice coming off the shuttle's external tank in flight. Also noted was some tile damage on the underside of the shuttle. None is thought at this time to be significant.

The orbital heat shield inspections have been standard since the shuttle fleet's return to service after the 2003 Columbia accident, which was caused by an external tank foam strike that breached the ship's left wing on acent.

The damage went unnoticed and hot gasses blowtorched the wing during reentry, leading to the destruction of the craft and the loss of its crew.

An Apollo 11 anniversary roundtable is scheduled on NASA TV at 1 p.m.

Check out the details in this latest revision -- Rev D -- of the STS-127 NASA TV Schedule.

You can also see the crew's detailed timeline -- and messages beamed up from Mission Control -- in this Flight Day 2 Execute Package.