Sick shuttle astronaut in no danger: ESA

By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hans Schlegel, the German astronaut on space shuttle Atlantis whose illness forced NASA to delay a spacewalk, is not suffering a dangerous ailment and should be able to resume his normal duties, the European Space Agency said on Sunday.

The Atlantis crew was supposed to install Europe's laboratory Columbus on the International Space Station on Sunday, but NASA put it off until Monday due to Schlegel's still-undisclosed health problem.

He was scheduled to be one of two spacewalkers aiding the lab installation but will be replaced by crewmate Stan Love, NASA said.

In a statement, Volker Damaan, head of crew medical support at ESA's Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, said Schlegel's ailment "is currently not compatible with a spacewalk."

The condition developed after Atlantis launched from Florida on Thursday and "is neither life threatening nor does it impact the health of other crew members," Damaan said.

Schlegel, 56, sounded cheery after a musical wake-up call by Mission Control early on Sunday.

"Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for this piece of music. It's a German song about the nature of man and was selected by my dear wife," Schlegel said.

Schlegel, whose only previous flight was a 1993 shuttle mission, is scheduled for another spacewalk on Wednesday, which Damaan said "at this moment" doctors were "confident" he could perform.

The $1.9 billion Columbus, a silvery cylinder that weighs more than 10 tons, arrived at the station aboard Atlantis on Saturday. Once attached to the $100 billion outpost, it will be Europe's first permanent space research facility.

Its installation is already years behind schedule, having been delayed by events including the 2003 Columbia accident that caused NASA to ground shuttles for 2-1/2 years.

With the time freed up on Sunday, Atlantis astronauts used a robot arm fitted with cameras and laser to take a close look at a ripped thermal blanket near a shuttle maneuvering

engine.

An image beamed back to Mission Control showed a small section of it to be slightly raised.

The blanket helps protect the shuttle from heat damage during its fiery return to Earth, but Atlantis flight director Mike Sarafin said it was not yet known if it needs repair.

A similar tear occurred on a flight in June and NASA sent a spacewalking astronaut out to repair it with medical staples.