An unidentified piece of debris pierced a radiator on one of the payload bay doors of space shuttle Atlantis during its recent mission, NASA said. A team of technicians conducting a routine inspection of the shuttle, which returned September 21 from a 12-day mission to the International Space Station, found the tiny hole, measuring just one-tenth of an inch (2.5 millimeters) in diameter, NASA said Thursday.
"The impact occurred sometime during the STS-115 mission last month," a short statement issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
"The nature of the object that hit the shuttle radiator isn't known. The hit, which left a hole about one-tenth of an inch in diameter, didn't endanger the spacecraft or the crew, nor did it affect mission operations," it said.
The space debris damage was not detected in any of three painstaking inspections conducted while Atlantis was still in orbit as part of routine safety precautions adopted after the Columbia disaster in 2003.
Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth because a piece of foam insulation that shed from its internal fuel tank 80 seconds after launch had pierced its external heat shield.
The Atlantis inspections focused on the shuttle's heat shield. The radiator is vital, but its metal panels are atop the orbiter and are not exposed to the superheated gases that touch the shuttle's nose, underbelly and wingtips upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
Floating debris seen orbiting near Atlantis, along with a poor weather outlook, caused a one-day delay in the shuttle's return to Earth. Astronauts described the sighting of such debris as routine.
Source: Agence France-Presse
