NASA is pondering how to remove a rogue knob which has firmly wedged itself between a window and the dashboard of space shuttle Atlantis – an apparently minor affair which could actually result in a six-month delay in the venerable vehicle’s STS-129 mission to the International Space Station, or even see the shuttle grounded for good.
According to NASAspaceflight.com, the offending part is “a quick shoe mount knob from a crew work lamp” which was discovered during maintenance work at the shuttle’s Orbiter Processing Facility.
The knob is resting between the dashboard panel (pics and full details here) and the window’s inner pressure pane and has caused some damage to the glass. Accordingly, it “must be removed to evaluate pane condition before flight”, NASA has concluded.
