Space Station Lab Installation Begins

Feb. 11, 2008— -- Astronauts on the international space station began a spacewalk Monday morning to begin installing a European space lab, which has been delayed for more than two months.

The spacewalk was delayed Sunday because of a sick astronaut. The mystery about the nature of the illness still surrounds the abrupt change in plans.

NASA continues to refuse to say just what is wrong with German astronaut Hans Schlegel — citing medical privacy — and why he can't go out on a spacewalk.

Schlegel certainly appeared healthy in video downlinked from the International Space Station, and he sounded cheerful after he woke up on Sunday.

"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.

A flight controller at European Mission Control in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, wished him a speedy recovery: "Tell Hans to get better, we are keeping our fingers crossed he will feel better soon."

Analysts have cleared one issue with the space shuttle Atlantis: They have found no damage on the bottom of the shuttle that they believe would cause a problem when the orbiter returns home later this month.

The torn blanket near the shuttle's tail is another issue. Images that were downloaded Sunday are still being reviewed to see if the situation is bad enough to require fixing. And the damage doesn't look like much — a corner of a thermal blanket that is lifted up where the stitching that held it down tore. However, NASA sent spacewalkers out to stitch up similar damage on this same shuttle during a mission last June.

American astronaut Stanley Love, a first time flyer, spent Sunday poring over plans and talking about the spacewalk with Schlegel and fellow American spacewalker Rex Walheim. Love and Walheim will prepare the $2 billion European Columbus module for installation on the International Space Station.

STS 122 is the long-awaited mission to install the Columbus module, which gives European countries their own place on the space station. The installation was first delayed by the tragic Columbia accident, which pushed back space station construction three years, then delayed again last December by faulty engine cutoff sensors, which twice kept NASA from launching Atlantis.

Will Schlegel be well enough for the second spacewalk of the mission? Flight director Mike Sarafin said, unless he hears otherwise from flight surgeons, Wednesday's spacewalk will take place as originally planned, with Schlegel. As for Monday's spacewalk, nothing has been changed, because of the switch in crew, according to Sarafin. "The only difference is, who's going out the hatch," Sarafin said.

NASA scrambled over the weekend to rearrange the flight plan for the rest of the flight, now 12 days long. Mission managers added an extra day because of the spacewalk delay. On Tuesday, they will decide if they can add a second extension day to the mission. The extra day hinges on Atlantis' power supply.

Atlantis is the one shuttle in NASA's fleet of three orbiters that cannot draw power from the International Space Station while it is docked. How do you save power at home? Turn off the lights in empty rooms, right? The shuttle crew is being frugal with their power use, and one way to do that is to turn the lights off in the cabin when Atlantis comes into sunlight every 45 minutes as the shuttle orbits Earth.