NASA downplays glitch in Canadian robotic system
(Recasts with upcoming spacewalk, problem with robotic system)
By Irene Klotz
HOUSTON, March 13 (Reuters) - A Canadian-built robotic system bound for service aboard the International Space Station is not getting power for its heaters, but NASA and its partners expect the problem to be resolved with a software patch, officials said on Thursday.
The system known as Dextre, a $209 million addition to the station's robotic crane, was ferried into orbit aboard space shuttle Endeavour, which reached the outpost late on Wednesday. Despite the glitch, the first of five spacewalks to assemble Dextre was scheduled to begin as planned on Thursday night.
"There's not a sense of great urgency," shuttle mission management team chairman LeRoy Cain told reporters. "We don't have our hair on fire."
In addition to beginning work on Dextre, spacewalkers Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman planned to oversee the installation of an equipment-stuffed storage closet for Japan's elaborate Kibo laboratory as they ventured out more than 200 miles (320 km) above Earth.
Engineers were designing a software patch for Dextre and should know within a day or two if it would fix the power problem, Cain said.
The main part of the Kibo lab, which is about the size of a double-decker bus, is due to arrive at the space station in May. An outdoor porch for exposing experiments to the vacuum of space will follow in 2009.
Dextre can go at least five days before the cold of space becomes a problem, NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
More than two of the shuttle Endeavour crew's planned five spacewalks are dedicated to building Dextre.
"It comes up in nine different pieces," Reisman said in a preflight interview. "We have to put him together."
NASA hopes to use the robot to help with detailed exterior station maintenance, cutting down the amount of time astronauts have to spend on risky spacewalks. The space agency has two years to complete 10 remaining missions to the station before the aging shuttle fleet is retired.
After that, the number of people who will have access to the station for part-time work will be greatly reduced.
A typical shuttle flight ferries seven visitors to the outpost. But NASA plans to rely on the Russian Soyuz capsule -- which carries three people -- to transport astronauts to the station after shuttle flights end in 2010.
The Endeavour crew won't have to spend any extra time surveying their ship for heat shield damage, managers decided on Wednesday. After analyzing photographs taken by the space station crew as Endeavour approached for docking, engineers said the shuttle appeared in good shape for landing at the end of its planned 16-day mission.
NASA implemented a series of in-flight inspections after losing the shuttle Columbia and its crew in 2003 due to undetected heat shield damage. (Editing by Tom Brown and Todd Eastham)
By Irene Klotz
HOUSTON, March 13 (Reuters) - A Canadian-built robotic system bound for service aboard the International Space Station is not getting power for its heaters, but NASA and its partners expect the problem to be resolved with a software patch, officials said on Thursday.
The system known as Dextre, a $209 million addition to the station's robotic crane, was ferried into orbit aboard space shuttle Endeavour, which reached the outpost late on Wednesday. Despite the glitch, the first of five spacewalks to assemble Dextre was scheduled to begin as planned on Thursday night.
"There's not a sense of great urgency," shuttle mission management team chairman LeRoy Cain told reporters. "We don't have our hair on fire."
In addition to beginning work on Dextre, spacewalkers Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman planned to oversee the installation of an equipment-stuffed storage closet for Japan's elaborate Kibo laboratory as they ventured out more than 200 miles (320 km) above Earth.
Engineers were designing a software patch for Dextre and should know within a day or two if it would fix the power problem, Cain said.
The main part of the Kibo lab, which is about the size of a double-decker bus, is due to arrive at the space station in May. An outdoor porch for exposing experiments to the vacuum of space will follow in 2009.
Dextre can go at least five days before the cold of space becomes a problem, NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
More than two of the shuttle Endeavour crew's planned five spacewalks are dedicated to building Dextre.
"It comes up in nine different pieces," Reisman said in a preflight interview. "We have to put him together."
NASA hopes to use the robot to help with detailed exterior station maintenance, cutting down the amount of time astronauts have to spend on risky spacewalks. The space agency has two years to complete 10 remaining missions to the station before the aging shuttle fleet is retired.
After that, the number of people who will have access to the station for part-time work will be greatly reduced.
A typical shuttle flight ferries seven visitors to the outpost. But NASA plans to rely on the Russian Soyuz capsule -- which carries three people -- to transport astronauts to the station after shuttle flights end in 2010.
The Endeavour crew won't have to spend any extra time surveying their ship for heat shield damage, managers decided on Wednesday. After analyzing photographs taken by the space station crew as Endeavour approached for docking, engineers said the shuttle appeared in good shape for landing at the end of its planned 16-day mission.
NASA implemented a series of in-flight inspections after losing the shuttle Columbia and its crew in 2003 due to undetected heat shield damage. (Editing by Tom Brown and Todd Eastham)
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