'Minor' damage found to shuttle 航天飞机发现“小毛病”

An inspection¹ of the space shuttle Atlantis has uncovered some "minor²" damage to the vehicle's right side, Nasa officials say.

Nasa官员称，一项对阿特兰蒂斯号航天飞机的检查中发现右翼有一些“小毛病”。

Atlantis appears to be in good overall shape, but Nasa engineers in Houston are still studying the 53cm (21in) line of chips on the shuttle's right side.

More analysis is required to evaluate the case for another inspection.

Atlantis was launched on Monday to begin a risky³ repair mission intended to save the stricken（受伤的，受侵袭的） space observatory⁴.

Hubble has been hit by failures to its science instruments and to gyroscopes（陀螺仪，回转仪）.

These gyros are used to point the observatory at targets in the sky. If successful, the mission could extend Hubble's lifetime beyond 2014.

During their first full day in orbit, Atlantis's crew used a laser-tipped boom to look for any damage to the orbiter in a 10-hour inspection.

The line of chips uncovered by the astronauts are in thick tiles that make up the protective heat shield on Atlantis' starboard side（右舷）.

The damage is located where the right wing joins the shuttle's fuselage（机身）. Nasa said the chips could be related to a "debris⁵ event" detected by the wing's leading edge sensors⁶ 104-106 seconds into the lift-off.

Officials said the damage did not appear to be serious: "To my untrained eye... I would think [the chips] were minor," lead flight director Tony Ceccaci told reporters at a news conference in Houston.

But more analysis by engineers would determine whether a "focused inspection" was needed in that specific area. If so, astronauts would use sensors to determine the exact depth of the damage to the heat shield tiles.

Nasa has placed the space shuttle Endeavour on stand-by to rescue the crew of Atlantis if they are endangered.

If something goes wrong on this mission, Atlantis's astronauts will not be able to shelter on the International Space Station (ISS).

The station orbits at around 350km (220 miles) above Earth, while Hubble occupies an orbit about 560km (350 miles) up.

Impacts from micrometeoroids（微陨星体） and space debris present one of the most pernicious（有害的，致命的） threats to the astronauts.

There is more space junk - from old satellites and rocket stages - at Hubble's altitude（海拔，高度） than at the ISS's.

But a successful mission would make Hubble up to 90 times more powerful than it was in its original guise⁷（外观）.

Atlantis roared up into the sky at 1901 BST (1401 EDT) on Monday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Nasa discovered a surprising amount of damage from Monday's launch at the pad used by Atlantis.

Managers wanted to make sure none of the material blasted off during launch hit Atlantis.

Atlantis is due to rendezvous⁸（约会，约会地点） with Hubble just after 1700 BST (1200 EDT) on Wednesday.