Crew medical problem forces NASA to delay lab work

HOUSTON -- The astronauts aboard the linked shuttle and space station planned to inspect a small tear in one of Atlantis' thermal blankets on Sunday after their main job -- installing the Columbus lab -- was delayed a day because of a crew medical problem.

German astronaut Hans Schlegel was pulled off the first spacewalk of the mission shortly after he arrived at the international space station Saturday aboard Atlantis. Managers bumped the spacewalk and Columbus' hookup to the space station to Monday.

John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, would not say why Schlegel was being replaced or confirm he was the astronaut with the medical condition. He did note the condition was not life-threatening. When asked by another reporter if it was contagious, he said: "You guys can fish all day, but I won't bite."

Schlegel, 56, a two-time space flier, sounded OK on Sunday morning when he spoke to Mission Control after waking up to music from fellow German Herbert Gronemeyer.

"Greetings to everybody in America, in Europe and in Germany, and especially of course to my close family and my lovely wife, Heike," he said.

Schlegel was supposed to venture outside with American Rex Walheim on the first two of three planned spacewalks. His status on the second spacewalk, on Wednesday, was still uncertain.

The Columbus lab should have been unloaded from Atlantis and attached to the space station on Sunday, with two spacewalkers outside to help. Mission Control informed the astronauts that the installation would not take place until Monday just a few hours after the shuttle and the station joined up.

NASA said Schlegel's shuttle crewmate, American Stanley Love, would take his place. Love trained for the work as a backup, just in case, and already was assigned to the mission's third spacewalk, along with Walheim.

After spending much of the morning preparing for Monday's spacewalk, the crew will use a robotic arm and laser-tipped extension boom to gather more images of the tear. It is located along a seam in one of the many blankets covering Atlantis' right orbital maneuvering system pod, back near the tail.

The tear occurred during Thursday's launch and was discovered Friday, flight director Mike Sarafin said.

Engineers were trying to determine whether the tear posed a hazard for re-entry at flight's end. The exact size of the peeled-up section was unknown, but it appeared to be smaller and less worrisome than one that required spacewalking repairs aboard Atlantis last June.

"It's probably not that big of an issue, but we're off looking at it," Sarafin said.

NASA is particularly attentive to the shuttle's thermal shielding, ever since Columbia was destroyed during re-entry in 2003.

The delay in installing Columbus and carrying out the first spacewalk caused NASA to add a 12th day to the mission. Yet another day could be added; NASA had hoped to spend an extra day at the space station to help set up Columbus. Atlantis will remain at the orbiting complex until at least next weekend.