Nasa Assesses Damage to Discovery Shuttle
The astronauts were preparing for a critical stage of their 12-day mission today as Nasa continued to assess any safety threat from three "debris episodes" recorded during lift-off.
The astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery were preparing for a critical stage of their 12-day mission today as Nasa continued to assess any safety threat from three "debris episodes" recorded during Tuesday's lift-off.
Mission managers said it was still too early to state the significance of the incidents but hoped for better clues from today's scheduled docking with the International Space Station, which will allow the ISS crew to take close-up pictures of Discovery's underside.
The biggest concern is damage to a small area of heat-resistant tiling near the shuttle's forward landing gear - although technicians, mindful that it was falling debris which in 2003 doomed the space shuttle Columbia and seven astronauts aboard, continued to study video footage of a bird striking the external fuel tank at lift-off, and unidentified debris breaking off but missing the spacecraft two minutes later.
"The last flight ended in catastrophe and we lost seven friends of ours because of damage. So even if we have damage that is clearly within our capabilities we're going to get concerned about it," said Paul Hill, Nasa's leading flight director. But he added: "We have landed with a whole heck of a lot of damage in the 21 years we've been flying this thing [Discovery]."
Discovery's crew, led by Commander Eileen Collins, spent their first full day in orbit yesterday conducting a comprehensive seven-hour review of the shuttle's thermal protection shield using laser sensors attached to a 50ft robotic arm extension.
Mr Hill said that the pictures revealed no obvious signs of damage and that the orbiter was working "flawlessly".
The assessment of new safety procedures is one of two main aims of this first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster, and the mission specialists Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson will do three spacewalks to test tile repair techniques. The other objective is to deliver equipment and supplies to the ISS and to remove to Earth 13 tonnes of rubbish that has built up since the shuttle's last visit in November 2002.
Mission managers said it was still too early to state the significance of the incidents but hoped for better clues from today's scheduled docking with the International Space Station, which will allow the ISS crew to take close-up pictures of Discovery's underside.
The biggest concern is damage to a small area of heat-resistant tiling near the shuttle's forward landing gear - although technicians, mindful that it was falling debris which in 2003 doomed the space shuttle Columbia and seven astronauts aboard, continued to study video footage of a bird striking the external fuel tank at lift-off, and unidentified debris breaking off but missing the spacecraft two minutes later.
"The last flight ended in catastrophe and we lost seven friends of ours because of damage. So even if we have damage that is clearly within our capabilities we're going to get concerned about it," said Paul Hill, Nasa's leading flight director. But he added: "We have landed with a whole heck of a lot of damage in the 21 years we've been flying this thing [Discovery]."
Discovery's crew, led by Commander Eileen Collins, spent their first full day in orbit yesterday conducting a comprehensive seven-hour review of the shuttle's thermal protection shield using laser sensors attached to a 50ft robotic arm extension.
Mr Hill said that the pictures revealed no obvious signs of damage and that the orbiter was working "flawlessly".
The assessment of new safety procedures is one of two main aims of this first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster, and the mission specialists Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson will do three spacewalks to test tile repair techniques. The other objective is to deliver equipment and supplies to the ISS and to remove to Earth 13 tonnes of rubbish that has built up since the shuttle's last visit in November 2002.
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