After Friday afternoon's picture-perfect launch from Kennedy Space Center, six Atlantis launch are approaching their first full day in space during a planned 12-day mission to the International Space Station. Saturday will be devoted to inspections of the orbiter's heat shields to check for any damage that could have occurred during the climb to orbit.
NASA officials indicated after the launch that preliminary views showed what appeared to be a clean ascent, with a couple of pieces of external tank insulating foam stripping away but nothing believed to have caused significant damage.
Today, using a 50-foot boom extension attached to the shuttle's robotic arm, the crew will scan Atlantis' reinforced carbon-carbon wing leading edges and nose cap with cameras and lasers, generating more detailed images.
Spacewalkers Steve Bowen, Mike Good and Garrett Reisman will check out the spacesuits they'll use during three spacewalks.
And the crew will begin preparations for a Sunday morning docking with the station. Here's a look at the day ahead in space:
-- 4:20 a.m. Crew awakes.
-- 7:15 a.m. Boom removed from Atlantis' payload bay for heat shield survey.
-- 8:10 a.m. Spacewalkers begin spacesuit inspections.
-- 8:30 a.m. Heat shield inspection begins.
-- 2:40 p.m. Boom returned to payload bay.
-- 3:50 p.m. Centerline camera installed as part of preparations docking preparations.
-- 4:20 p.m. Orbiter Docking System ring extended.
-- 7:20 p.m. Crew sleeps.
IMAGE: Space shuttle Atlantis and its six-member STS-132 crew head toward Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 2:20 p.m. EDT on May 14, 2010, from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA.
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