Astronauts inspect shuttle for damage

The crew of Shuttle Atlantis conducted a painstaking laser inspection of the ship's wings Friday, looking for any signs of damage from its trip into space.

Launched Thursday after two months of technical delays, the shuttle was chasing the International Space Station in orbit with a special delivery: Europe's $2 billion US Columbus lab. The shuttle was scheduled to reach it Saturday.

But first the crew of seven astronauts had to determine whether the shuttle was damaged by at least three pieces of foam or other debris that came off the fuel tank two minutes after the liftoff.

There was no evidence that the debris hit Atlantis, but the astronauts were spending much of Friday using a laser-tipped inspection pole to examine the ship's vulnerable wings and nose.

Both the laser and boom were made with technology developed in Canada: Ottawa technology firm Neptec designed and built the 3D laser camera, while the space robotics division of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates made the boom the sensor sits atop.

The images they gather will be beamed to the ground and thoroughly analyzed over the new few days.

The inspection has been standard procedure ever since a hole in the wing brought down Columbia in 2003, the result of a strike by a slab of fuel-tank foam.

French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts will move into the space station for a little more than a month, replacing NASA astronaut Daniel Tani. He plans to help continue setting up and activating the Columbus module, Europe's primary contribution to the space station.

Columbus installation set for Sunday

Atlantis was supposed to deliver Columbus in December, but fuel gauge trouble prevented the launch.

Atlantis' commander, Stephen Frick, and his crew will begin installing Columbus on Sunday. Three spacewalks are planned during the flight, scheduled to last 11 or, more likely, 12 days.

Columbus will join the U.S. lab, Destiny, which was launched aboard Atlantis exactly seven years ago. The Japanese lab Kibo, or Hope, is so big it will take three shuttle trips to get everything up, beginning in March.

Thursday's launch kept NASA on track for six shuttle flights this year.

The space agency faces a 2010 deadline for finishing the station and retiring the shuttles. That equates to four or five shuttle flights a year between now and then, something NASA Administrator Michael Griffin considers achievable.