page_title: STS-135
section_title: 9 July (Flight Day 2 – TPS survey)
hierarchical_section_title: STS-135 / Mission timeline / 9 July (Flight Day 2 – TPS survey)
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA astronauts Chris Ferguson, left, and Doug Hurley are pictured at the commander's station and pilot's station, respectively, on the flight deck of the space shuttle Atlantis during the mission's second day of activities in Earth orbit.
context_page_description: STS-135 was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter Atlantis and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 launched on 8 July 2011, and landed on 21 July 2011, following a one-day mission extension. The four-person crew was the smallest of any shuttle mission since STS-6 in April 1983. The mission's primary cargo was the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello and a Lightweight Multi-Purpose Carrier, which were delivered to the International Space Station. The flight of Raffaello marked the only time that Atlantis carried an MPLM.
  Although the mission was authorised, it initially had no appropriation in the NASA budget, raising questions about whether the mission would fly. On 20 January 2011, program managers changed STS-335 to STS-135 on the flight manifest. This allowed for training and other mission specific preparations. On 13 February 2011, program managers told their workforce that STS-135 would fly regardless of the funding situation via a continuing resolution.
context_section_description: A crowd at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center greeted the crew with a unique "good morning" call. "Good morning Atlantis, the Marshall Space Flight Center hopes you enjoyed your ride to orbit."  We wish you a successful mission and a safe return home," the workers said in a recorded video message.
  The main objective of the day was to inspect Atlantis's thermal protection system, using the shuttle's robotic arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) to look for any signs of launch damage. To do so, Commander Ferguson, Pilot Hurley and Mission Specialist Magnus used the shuttle's robotic arm and the OBSS to get a close up look at reinforced carbon–carbon wing leading edges and the nose cap of the shuttle. The robotic arm grappled the OBSS at 6:58 a.m. EDT. After raising out the arm-boom assembly, the crew activated the camera and laser sensor package on the boom to first scan the starboard wing. The nose cap was surveyed next followed by the port wing. The gathered visual and electronic data were downlinked during numerous Ku band communication opportunities to the ground. With imagery on their hand, experts began to review the data. The heat shield survey started around 11:00 UTC, was wrapped about five hours later. In his NASA TV commentary, NASA Public Affairs Officer, Rob Navias, said that most of the time, the crew worked ahead of schedule opting to take meals while working. The crew received high praise for their efficient work from the Mission Control Houston including CAPCOM astronaut Stephen Robinson who communicated with them during the survey.
  While the TPS survey was under way, Mission Specialist Walheim spent much of his afternoon on the shuttle's middeck. He worked to prepare items carried into orbit there for transfer to the space station. Later in the day, Walheim worked with Hurley to check out the rendezvous tools that would be used during Atlantis's docking with the ISS on Flight Day 3. Meanwhile, Ferguson and Magnus installed the center-line camera in the window of the shuttle's hatch for a view that would help them align Atlantis with the space station.
  The NC2 and NC3 course correction burns were also performed during Flight Day 2 to change the flight path of Atlantis en route to the ISS. The NC3 maneuver lasted seven seconds and changed the shuttle's velocity by about 1.5 feet per second (0.46 m/s). Aboard the ISS, the Expedition 28 crew completed the pressurization of Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA-2), located at the forward docking port of the Harmony module, ahead of the shuttle's docking. Crew members Fossum, Volkov and Furukawa also held a meeting with the ground imagery experts to discuss the planned photography shoot during Atlantis's rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM).
  During the mission status briefing from the Johnson Space Flight Center (JSC), shuttle flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho said that Atlantis was off to one of the smoothest starts of any mission in the 30-year history of NASA's shuttle program. He told reporters, "I think this is certainly one of the better starts that we have seen".
caption: Chris Ferguson and Doug Hurley on the flight deck of Atlantis.
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