Cape Canaveral, Fla. – NASA officials on Wednesday cleared the space shuttle Atlantis to land this morning after two final inspections of the spacecraft’s outer skin turned up no evidence of damage from space debris.
“We are cleared for entry,” shuttle program manager N. Wayne Hale Jr. said. “Nothing was found to be missing or damaged.”
Atlantis had been scheduled to land Wednesday, following an 11-day mission that included three spacewalks to install a truss and a set of solar arrays on the international space station.
The landing was waved off when astronauts on Atlantis saw a piece of debris floating away from the shuttle.
Because the incident appeared to coincide with readings showing one of the wings may have been struck, NASA asked the crew to scan the craft’s insulating tiles and reinforced carbon panels that protect it from the heat of re-entry, which can exceed 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
The six-person crew spent much of Wednesday inspecting the craft using a robotic arm equipped with a television camera and a boom extension fitted with a laser scanner able to reveal tiny imperfections.
“I really am very confident we are in good shape,” said Paul Dye, the shuttle’s lead flight director at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The first opportunity to land in Florida was at 4:21 a.m. MDT.
Steve Stich, the entry flight director, said the weather forecast was good for landing today.
Officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said they still weren’t sure what the debris was.
The most likely explanation was “shim stock,” a piece of red plastic that serves as a spacer when heat-resistant tiles are installed. In earlier inspections, one of the spacers was seen sticking out from the underside of the craft. The latest inspection showed it had vanished.
