NASA inspects shuttle for launch damage

The space shuttle Endeavour's seven astronauts, including Canadian Julie Payette, will investigate potential damage to their spaceship as it orbits the Earth Thursday, en route to the International Space Station.

Images taken of Wednesday evening's launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida showed debris breaking off the shuttle's fuel tank and hitting Endeavour near where its right wing meets the fuselage.

NASA mission control told the astronauts on Wednesday the damage did not look as extensive as what happened on the last shuttle flight, but a number of inspections will take place to confirm the safety of the craft.

"The bottom line is we saw some stuff," said Mike Moses, chairman of the mission management team, on Wednesday. "Some of it doesn't concern us. Some of it you just can't really speculate on right now." Engineers will need several days to evaluate launch imagery and perform other tests to ensure there are no problems, he added.

Since the space shuttle Columbia and its crew in 2003 were lost during re-entry because of a hole in its wing, an inspection of the shuttle before it arrives at the space station has become standard procedure for NASA.

The shuttle crewis scheduled to perform the inspection of the shuttle's heat shield Thursday afternoon using a 30-metre laser-tipped boom.

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.

2 Canadians in space

Endeavour's seven astronauts, including Payette, are scheduled to perform five spacewalks and complete the construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo experiment module at the space station during their 16-day mission.

Payette, the flight engineer, will operate the shuttle's Canadarm 1, the space station's Canadarm 2 and a third mechanical arm that is to be installed on Kibo.

Payette is making her second foray into space; she was the first Canadian to visit the space station, in 1999. All of the astronauts were ready to go and looking forward to carrying out the mission, she said.

"I can tell you theres nothing routine about standing next to a spacecraft or [being] strapped in inside a spacecraft. This is an immense privilege, but its also quite awesome," she said.

The astronauts will catch up Friday with the space station, which was soaring more than 355 kilometres above the Pacific at launch time.

When they do, it will be the first time 13 people are together in space. Ten is the previous record.

The mission will also mark the first time two Canadians will be in space simultaneously. Robert Thirsk arrived at the space station in late May aboard a Russian space capsule for a six-month stay, the first time a Canadian has participated in a long-duration mission to space.