CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - With a 4-inch gap in the space shuttle

Atlantis' heat-protecting blanket not appearing to be an urgent problem on

Saturday, the crew readied themselves for what NASA called a delicate

ballet with the international space station.

Then the shuttle will enter a weeklong embrace Sunday with the orbital

outpost.

Atlantis' seven astronauts spent much of Saturday on a mandatory

inspection of the shuttle's delicate heat tiles, outer edges and blankets

for problems similar to the kind that caused the fatal Columbia accident

in 2003. As of Saturday afternoon, no glaring problems were reported.

But late Friday and early Saturday, the crew spent extra time using a

robot arm to look at a gap in a thermal blanket on the left side of the

shuttle. The gap, about 4 inches, appears to be the result of an unusual

fold in the blanket, NASA spokeswoman Lynette Madison said.

NASA mission managers discussed the gap Saturday and were not ready to

pronounce the blanket completely OK until more analysis was done, NASA

spokesman Kyle Herring said. It was not expected to change the astronauts'

plans in the next several days, he said.

"We've landed safely with damage (in the same area) that's similar or

worse," Herring said. "I don't think concern is the right word; there's no

urgency with the situation."

The area does not get hotter than 700 degrees Fahrenheit during the

shuttle's return to Earth and is not a place where NASA is usually

concerned about potentially fatal problems, Madison said. Still, engineers

were using photos to create a three-dimensional model of the gap just in

case.

As part of the normal day-after-launch tile inspections, astronaut Patrick

Forrester used the shuttle's robot arm and a boom extension to examine its

wings and outer edges.

By late afternoon, mission managers had found no other issues, concluding

that Atlantis was flying well, Herring said.

Atlantis' crew was given an extra half-hour to sleep Saturday morning,

then awoke to the song "Big Boy Toys" by Aaron Tippin.

Atlantis' seven-man crew was closing the gap between it and the space

station by about 800 miles every 90-minute orbit. By 2 p.m. EDT, the

shuttle was scheduled to be about 4,000 miles away from its destination.

Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the space station Sunday at 3:38 p.m.

EDT.

Before the docking comes maneuvering that NASA officials often call a

delicate ballet, a procedure that has appeared effortless in 20 previous

tries, even though it is risky.

"Two vehicles weighing 230,000 pounds going 17,500 mph, it's tough stuff,"

Mission Management Team leader John Shannon told The Associated Press.

Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow will move the shuttle until it is 600

feet below the station and then make the shuttle turn a 360-degree

backflip in just nine minutes. The last few feet of the docking occur so

slowly that Atlantis will get only an inch closer to the station every

second.

Once the shuttle and station connect, they will stay locked until June 17.

During the 11-day flight, the astronauts will deliver a new segment and a

pair of solar panels to the orbiting outpost. They plan three spacewalks

- on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - to install the new equipment and

retract an old solar panel.

On Sunday, astronaut Clayton Anderson will replace astronaut Sunita

Williams as the U.S. representative aboard the space station, and Williams

will return to Earth aboard Atlantis. She has spent the past six months in

orbit.

About an hour after launch, NASA managers said initial checks found

nothing to worry about. One piece of foam that appeared to come off the

shuttle's fuel tank - which bore ugly white patches from repaired hail

damage that had delayed the flight by three months - about 135 seconds

after launch did not seem to hit the shuttle, said shuttle program manager

Wayne Hale.

"The tank performed in a magnificent way, despite having several thousand

repairs to it," Hale said at a news conference. "(The debris) should not

be a hazard that late in the flight."

The first shuttle launch of the year helped put NASA back on track after a

run of bad luck and scandal on the ground during the first half of the

year.

In the past few months, NASA has seen the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak

in an alleged plot to kidnap her rival for a shuttle pilot's affections; a

murder-suicide at the Johnson Space Center in Houston; and the derailment

of a train carrying rocket-booster segments for future shuttle launches.

More recently, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has come under fire for

suggesting that global warming may not be a problem worth wrestling with.

And the agency's inspector general was lambasted at a congressional

hearing Thursday by former staff members, congressmen and senators for the

way he managed his office, treated his employees and investigated

complaints.

On the Net:

Shuttle mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission-pages/shuttle/main/index.html