Space debris leaves tiny hole in Atlantis

NEW YORK - The shuttle Atlantis, which successfully completed an 11-day mission last month was injured in combat, NASA officials revealed today. Atlantis suffered a tiny, but significant hole in its frame when it was hit by a piece of space debris.The micrometeoroid apparently struck at a radiator panel and did not cause any damage to the delicate thermal panels or the tiles that are the shield for the shuttle when it returns to Earth. James Hartsfield, a NASA spokesman said that when viewed with a historical perspective, the hit was a major one.He said the hit was “the second-most-damaging particle that we've encountered in the program, but posed no danger to the crew and no change to the mission." NASA revealed that it was not aware of what exactly had hit the shuttle.However the impact was hard enough to cause a hole of about a tenth of an inch in diameter at the entry point, NASA admitted. The exit hole of the particle is three-hundredths of an inch in diameter. It also caused a a crack two-tenths of an inch in length.The astronauts' abroad the shuttle conducted three inspections though they were focuses on the heat shields rather than the payload bay. “This is exactly why we instituted the late inspection in this program,” NASA spokesperson Kyle Herring told Space.com. “We've known for the life of this program that [micrometeorite and orbital debris] was a top risk to the space shuttle. Definitely in the top five, and maybe in the top three.”NASA has been very safety conscious ever since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. The shuttle burst into flames on re-entry killing all seven astronauts on board.