Cupola's relocation may be delayed

Tonight's planned relocation of the International Space Station's new, dome-shaped observation deck may be delayed by at least a day because of concerns about its fit on a berthing port.

Endeavour and station crew members ran into trouble trying to place a protective thermal cover over the hatch that the seven-windowed cupola will vacate when it is moved from the end of the Tranquility module to its Earth-facing port.

"They had some problems where the bars that hold it in place were interfering with the structure of the cupola," said Bob Dempsey, lead station flight director.

Station commander Jeff Williams today removed eight bolts that improved the cover's clearance with a handrail bracket, but it remained very tight, barely enough for a thin metal ruler to fit through.

A similar hatch cover -- called a center disk cover -- is fastened in the Earth-facing port that the cupola is moving to. The concern is that the same or even worse clearance may exist when the cupola arrives at that location.

"You want to be careful when you're coming in with the robotic arm, you don't want to strike metal against metal and then try and drive bolts or the arm motors into it and possibly damage something," said Dempsey.

Teams are studying several options that include removing cupola parts that weren't intended to be removed in space.

"We're not sure yet that we are comfortable in relocating the cupola with this potential interference, so the teams are continuing to look at options," Dempsey said. "We might likely go in and remove some additional structure, and then that would provide all the clearance we need, and then we'd be able to relocate the cupola. That will continue throughout today."

The cupola's relocation could be pushed back one day (to Flight Day Nine) or delayed to the extra day added to the mission (Flight Day 11) or, in a worst case, deferred to the station crews or a later shuttle crew to tackle.

The preference is for the Endeavour crew to handle the job, since it is trained in all the procedures to activate the cupola, including tasks spacewalkers Bob Behnken and Nick Patrick had planned for the mission's third and final spacewalk.

Mission managers will put together a new timeline for the day ahead while the shuttle and station crews sleep. The sleep period begins around 8 a.m.