Canada Arm Put to Use

NASA: Undocked shuttle to use robotic arm to inspect heat shield

March 25, 2009 (Computerworld) After its undocking from the International Space Station this afternoon, the crew of the space shuttle Discovery quickly began two days of inspections to make sure it can survive the trip home. The astronauts leave after installing the S6 truss and attached 5,000-pound solar arrays last week.

After being docked together for 7 days, 22 hours and 34 minutes, the two space crafts parted at 3:53 p.m. EDT today. About a half an hour after the undocking, the shuttle and station began an hour-long process of taking pictures of each other. The images will be sent to NASA engineers on the ground who will study them as part of an effort to determine whether the craft suffered any damage to its thermal protection system, which protects the craft and its seven-person crew from blazingly high temperatures that come during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

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