HOUSTON -
An early look at imagery of NASA's space shuttle Discovery and its discarded fuel
tank has found the orbiter's heat shield to be in good shape one day after
launch, mission managers said Wednesday.
Discovery's
seven-astronaut crew scanned
the spacecraft's wings and nose cap with a sensor-tipped inspection boom
today while engineers on Earth studied imagery of the shuttle's Tuesday liftoff
and its jettisoned fuel tank.
"The
preliminary indication is that there is nothing that anyone is concerned about
at all," said John Shannon, head of Discovery's STS-120 mission management team.
Shannon said a complete analysis of the heat
shield inspection should be completed by week's end, when it can be combined
with high-resolution images of Discovery's belly-mounted tiles that will be taken by
astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Shuttle commander
Pamela Melroy will guide Discovery through an orbital flip before docking at
the ISS early Thursday to allow the station's Expedition 16 crew to photograph
the shuttle's undercarriage.
An early
analysis of Discovery's fuel tank found that some modifications designed to
limit foam loss appeared to be a success, Shannon said, adding that about six
pieces of debris seen in launch video occurred too late to pose any risk to the
shuttle.
"Overall,
the tank performed extremely well," Shannon said.
NASA has
continually worked to limit the amount of foam debris during shuttle launches
after a piece damaged the Columbia orbiter's heat shield in 2003, leading to
the loss of the spacecraft and its crew during landing.
Melroy and
her crewmates spent a bit more time than usual inspecting Discovery's heat
shield to get a clearer view of heat-resistant panels lining its wing leading
edges.
Before the shuttle's
launch, an independent NASA engineering group recommended that the agency replace
three of the panels after finding possible defects in their exterior coating. Mission
managers, however, found Discovery fit to fly and believe that any significant degradation
in the panels would turn up in the data gathered from today's inspection.
Discovery's
STS-120 crew will deliver
a new orbital room dubbed Harmony during a planned 14-day mission
to the ISS. Once completely installed, the Italian-built Harmony module will
serve as the docking port for European and Japanese laboratories. During their
mission, shuttle astronauts also plan to relocate a massive solar array segment
and swap out one member of the station's Expedition 16 crew.
Discovery
is scheduled to dock at the ISS on Thursday at 8:35 a.m. EDT (1235 GMT).
"It's
wonderful to be back in space again and I'm looking forward to getting back to
the ISS tomorrow," said Discovery mission specialist Scott Parazynski, who is making his
fifth spaceflight on the STS-120 mission. "It should be a really great day."
NASA is broadcasting
Discovery's STS-120 mission to the International Space Station live on NASA TV.
Click here for mission updates
and NASA TV from SPACE.com.
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