Astronaut's Mystery Illness Delays Spacewalk

HOUSTON, Feb. 9, 2008— -- NASA is refusing to specify the medical problem that is reportedly keeping astronaut Hans Schlegel from performing a spacewalk planned for Sunday to begin installation of the European Columbus module at the International Space Station.

Schlegel, 56, is a German astronaut who had been scheduled for two spacewalks during the mission, known as Space Transportation System 122. Just what his medical issue is, no one is saying.

John Shannon, chairman of the Mission Management Team, which oversees issues that come up during a space shuttle flight, repeatedly declined to answer questions about Schlegel's condition, citing medical privacy rights.

"You can fish all day but I am not going to bite," Shannon said.

There were no clear signs of any illness in video featuring Schlegel of the hatch opening between the space shuttle Atlantis and the space station.

Shannon insisted that Schlegel's inability to perform the spacewalk would not endanger the shuttle mission.

"It is not life-threatening," he said. "The EVA [Extra Vehicular Activity] is an entire team-integrated activity, it is not going to affect the outcome of the mission."

However, the reported illness has already forced NASA to extend the mission by one day, because the spacewalk had to be pushed back to Monday. Mission managers had wanted the option of adding a fourth spacewalk to the flight, if needed, but nixed the possibility because it would require extending the mission by a second day.

That would be a problem, because the Atlantis is the one orbiter in the shuttle fleet without a power transfer system to allow it to draw power from the space station while the two are docked.

STS 122 is the long-awaited mission to install the Columbus module, the $2 billion lab that will give European countries their own place on the International Space Station.

The installation of the module was first delayed by the tragic Columbia accident, which pushed back space station construction three years. Construction was delayed again last December when faulty engine cutoff sensors twice kept NASA from launching the Atlantis.