Atlantis update

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) has now been in orbit for 4 1/2 days, so I thought this would be a good time for a little bit of an update. Most of what I'm giving you comes from NASA's website, which is posting a very detailed status blog.

After lifting off early Monday afternoon, the astronauts spent most of Tuesday using cameras attached to the shuttle's boom to inspect the heat shield for damage. This is standard protocol after the Space Shuttle Comumbia (STS-107) disintegrated upon reentry at the completion of its mission to space. Seven astronauts were killed in the disaster which resulted from damage sustained by the heat shield during liftoff. The initial inspection of Atlantis's heat shield showed only a minor defect, which at this point isn't thought to pose a risk to the shuttle or her crew. (BTW...the question I asked a few days ago relates to this. Space Shuttle Endeavor is still setting on a launch pad in Florida. There is a crew of 4 astronauts on "stand by" ready to do rescue the Atlantis crew should that orbiter be determined to be unsafe.)
The main order of business on Wednesday was to capture the Hubble Space Telescope using the shuttle's boom arm, and secure it to the cargo bay of the orbiter.

Yesterday, Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel completed the first of 5 scheduled spacewalks for this mission. The spacewalk lasted about 7.5 hours and was spent replacing a camera and a computer on the telescope, doing some maintenance work, and making preparations for subsequent spacewalks later in the mission.
Today (Friday), Astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good completed the mission's second spacewalk. At just under 8 hours, this was the 8th longest spacewalk in history. (Think about that...a normal work or school day spent in a space outside of the spacecraft...) This time was spent replacing several sensors and a batteries on the telescope.

The last three spacewalks are scheduled to be completed in the next three days.