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Astronaut Recovers, Readies For Mission

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By MARCIA DUNN, The Associated Press

Published: February 11, 2008

CAPE CANAVERAL - Shuttle Atlantis' sick German astronaut looked and sounded well Sunday as he helped a crewmate prepare for a spacewalk that should have been his.

In an extremely unusual move, NASA pulled Hans Schlegel off the spacewalk to help install the European lab, Columbus, at the International Space Station, and delayed the work until today, one day later than planned.

Schlegel, 56, a physicist and former paratrooper who has seven children, was fine for Thursday's liftoff and became ill in orbit, European Space Agency officials said, adding that the condition was neither life-threatening nor contagious.

The hope is that Schlegel will be well enough to take part in Wednesday's spacewalk, the second of three planned for Atlantis' space station visit. He was sidelined Saturday, shortly after the shuttle reached the station.

NASA refused to give out any additional details, citing medical privacy. But it's common knowledge that a majority of astronauts suffer from space motion sickness during their first few days in orbit.

Schlegel huddled Sunday with his replacement, American Stanley Love, and the other spacewalker, American Rex Walheim, as the men got their equipment ready for today's 6 1/2 -hour outing.
Mission managers added a day to the flight plan because of the spacewalk delay. Astronauts took the extra time to conduct a survey of a thermal blanket on their ship that has a torn corner; the stitching came apart at the seams, and the corner pulled up.

Engineers were analyzing the problem to determine whether the blanket would stand up to the intense heat of re-entry at flight's end, or whether spacewalk repairs might be needed.

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