Atlantis shuttle astronauts took a close look at a torn insulation blanket on their vehicle's engine pod Sunday as mission managers officially extended their flight by one day due to a crew member's illness.John Shannon, NASA's deputy shuttle program manager, said Atlantis' now 12-day mission to deliver a new European lab to the international space station was extended to make up for lost time. An undisclosed medical issue among Atlantis' crew Saturday prompted a 24-hour delay for a spacewalk originally scheduled for today.
European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel, a German spaceflyer, was replaced by U.S. crewmate Stanley Love for the upcoming spacewalk after the medical issue arose, but is expected to rejoin the spacewalking rotation later this week as per the mission plan, said NASA's STS-122 shuttle flight director Mike Sarafin.
"The plan right now is to perform the rest of the mission as planned," Sarafin told reporters in an afternoon briefing here at the Johnson Space Center. "The timeline changes that we've had to make aren't going to result in any impact to the mission."
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