Eileen [Collins], Vegas, myself, and Wendy [Lawrence] are on the rendezvous team, and we basically position the orbiter beneath the Space Station, about 600 feet below, and Eileen and Vegas put the orbiter into a pitch maneuver, which basically pirouettes or rotates 360 degrees. And when the orbiter is belly up to the Station, Station crew will be taking detailed photographs using a 400mm lens and, and basically taking detailed shots of the belly of the vehicle to look for critical damage areas or, or critical-size damage areas on the belly of the vehicle. And, and it's pretty easy to see, because on the bottom of the vehicle they have, you have black tiles, some of them are discolored because of, of the flights and, and the aging on the tiles. And if they see damage, then later on in our mission, if we see damage that we think needs a further inspection or a more detailed look, we will take the boom sensor out and we will put it underneath the belly of the vehicle to basically inspect for damage to the tiles.
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NASA ID
ksc_042505_mcb_collins2
Date Created
June 2, 2005
Center
KSC
Media Type
video
Photographer
NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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