The crew has completed the set up of the Centerline Berthing Camera System that will be used during the rendezvous with the station Wednesday.
With a picture-perfect launch day under their belts, Atlantis’ crew members will spend their first full day in space taking pictures of what they hope will be a perfect heat shield.
Pilot Barry E. Wilmore, Commander Charles O. Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin and Randy Bresnik are using the 50-foot-long shuttle robotic arm and its 50-foot-long orbiter boom sensor system to get an up close look at the tiles of Atlantis’ wing leading edges and nose cap.
The inspection makes use of a suite of cameras and lasers on the end of the boom and gives experts on the ground 3-D views of the shuttle’s heat shield.
Those photos, as well as others taken during various points in the mission, will be used to ensure that the shuttle did not sustain any damage during its launch on Monday.
This inspection will take about five hours. While it is going on, the crew’s spacewalkers – Mike Foreman and Robert L. Satcher Jr., with help from Bresnik when he’s not working on the inspection – will perform a checkout of the two spacesuits to be worn on the first of the mission’s three spacewalks and prepare the suits for transfer to the International Space Station.
In preparation for docking with the station on Wednesday, the crew also will set up the centerline camera, extend the Orbiter Docking System ring and check out other equipment that will be used during the rendezvous.
