The space shuttle crew hit a brief snag in their construction plans Monday when four spinning gyroscopes that keep the international space station properly positioned became overloaded, delaying the mission's first spacewalk, according to The Associated Press. NASA spokesman John Ira Petty said the gyroscopes were soon working again, but the delay set back the Atlantis crew's spacewalking preparations by 40 minutes to an hour. The shuttle was used to help control the station's orientation until the gyroscopes were able to take over again. During the planned spacewalk, astronaut James Reilly and Danny Olivas intended to connect a new, 35,000-pound (15,876-kilogram) segment to the space station and remove bolts and restraints holding a solar array in place on the segment. The array, to be unfolded later in the mission, will add about 14 kilowatts of power-generating capability to the station. It isn't much _ a 100-watt bulb left on for 10 hours uses one kilowatt _ but it adds to the station's other solar arrays. The two astronauts were warned to keep their eyes on their gloves Monday. NASA began requiring spacewalkers to examine their gloves for damage after every task following the last shuttle flight, in December, when astronaut Robert Curbeam apparently cut an outer layer of his glove. Curbeam was never in any danger _ in fact, the cut was not found until during an examination on the ground several months later _ but NASA wants to make sure there is no chance a leak could develop while an astronaut is in space. «If we do have damage to the glove, it will help us detect where on the vehicle we have a sharp edge,» said Kirk Shireman, deputy program manager of the international space station. While the two spacewalkers are working, engineers in Houston 220 miles (354 kilometers) below will evaluate whether a peeled-back thermal blanket on Atlantis should be fixed before the shuttle returns home. The loosened blanket, covering a 4-inch-by 6-inch area over an engine pod, was discovered during an inspection Saturday. A decision likely will be made in the next day or two. Engineers who studied damage to the blanket area on other shuttle missions were uncomfortable with having the piece stick out during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Temperatures on the shuttle's heat shield can reach as high as 2,900 degree Fahrenheit (1,600 Celsius) during re-entry, although the heat on the blanket's location during re-entry only reaches 700 degrees to 1,000 degrees (370 to 540 C). «The concern is that if it sticks up, you get additional heating,» said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. Engineers do not think it could burn through the graphite structure underneath the blanket, but they were worried it might cause some damage that would require repairs on the ground. The rest of the vehicle appeared to be in fine shape, NASA said. Before Atlantis docked Sunday, astronauts inside the space station photographed the shuttle's belly when Atlantis was 600 feet (183 meters) below the orbiting outpost. Nothing «jumped out at us» during a review of the photos, Shannon said, although a few pieces of gap filler appeared to be sticking out. Gap filler is inserted between thermal tiles to prevent them from rubbing against each other.
