STS-157 chapter 2. Orbit Ops.

Matt Kawalski settled into the commander seat as he and Amy Evans began to get Explorer ready for the main task of the day, TPS inspection. Ever since the Columbia disaster in 2003, all flight since have had to use the robot arm and new Orbiter Boom Sensor System boom to scan the heat shield tiles and RCC leading edges of the wings and nose for any damage from ice or foam coming off the external tank at launch.

Mission specialist John Thomas activated the remote manipulator arm as it rose from it's cradle and moved to grapple the OBSS and lift it out of it's cradle to begin scanning. Ryan was busy in the mid-deck doing some small experiments with a cell culture while Commander Matt Kowalski and pilot Shannon Hatfield checked the orbiter's flight systems for the next day's rendezvous with the Hubble Telescope. The scan for the left wing would take fifty minutes. This would be an all day task to scan the entire orbiter.

On board the flight deck, pilot Shannon Hatfield and Commander Matt Kowalski began to see up Explorer for a little course correction to change the velocity of the orbiter by 10.3 feet per second. This would be the first of two to be done today. On the aft station of the flight deck Mission specialists Amy Evans and Jack Thomas began setting up the RMS, shuttle's robot arm to lift out of the cradle and move over to pick up the OBSS.

While all that was going on, aboard the International Space Station commander Robert Scott and flight engineer Genadi Padalka, JAXA astronauts Saeko Sano, Megumi Odaka, Finnish astronaut Matti Keskiivari, Filipino astronaut David Punangbayun were emptying the new HTV transfer vehicle of new cargo. Aboard the unmanned craft from Japan was new external payloads for the 'porch' extension of the Kibo lab that would be removed later and food, clothing, and a some personal items the crew requested be brought to them. Make the station seem more like home with the comforts to boot. For the crew the most important item was unstowing the supplies from HTV and the Japanese crew giving a classroom lecture to students in Japan.

Explorer,

The day was going average with the belly and right wing scanned after six hours. The nose and then the left wing were next on the list. The 3D scanning was Transmitted down to Huston for the Engineering team to assess for any damage to the tiles or carbon panels. "Long day huh?" Matt asked as Amy and Jack began scanning the orbiter's left wing. Jack moving the robot arm so delicately to not hit the vehicle. As tough as the heat shield was, it was weak when it came to being hit, even slightly. Columbia proved that fatefully beyond any doubt. And that was a block of foam from the external tank that was more like Styrofoam that punched a hole in her left wing. For Explorer's crew a few more hours of work and then go to bed. Tomorrow would be a big day as it would be time to meet Hubble face to face.