Cumbrian Sky

After an almost flawless launch - there was no apparrent tile damage, but a small wad of insulation blanket seems to be sticking out of one of the shuttle's OMS pods... they'll just stuff it back in during a spacewalk, no problem - ATLANTIS has now docked with the space station, and the crew are preparing to move the COLUMBUS module out of the shuttle's payload bay and dock it with the station.

However, this has been delayed because of an unexplained medical problem with one of the European astronauts onboard. Hans Schlegel was due to take part in a spacewalk to supervise the attaching of COLUMBUS to the station, but he has been replaced by a backup crew member, and it is uncertain if he will now do any spacewalks at all.

What is wrong? Well, no-one's saying, and it's all a bit of a mystery, but pictures on NASA TV showed the astronaut looking fine, so there's a lot of speculation going on. It's pointless tho, because the doctor onboard the station is bound by the same oaths of confidentiality that a terrestrial doctor is, so all the press questions during the conference last night were wasted. NASA's not saying a word. Let's just hope he gets better soon.

The full story - well, what's known anyway - can be read here...

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