This
story was updated at 12:33 p.m. EDT.
CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery are gearing up for
their planned Saturday landing after Mission Control found that a lost metal
clip poses no threat to their spacecraft's return.
Shuttle
commander Mark
Kelly and pilot Kenneth Ham test fired Discovery's maneuvering thrusters and
power up systems to flex the shuttle's flight control surfaces. But after those
tests, they reported spotting a shiny, rectangular bit of debris drifting away
shuttle to the aft of its starboard wing.
Mission
controllers swiftly studied the 1- to- 1 1/2-foot long (0.3-0.4 meter) object
in short video of and still images captured by the shuttle crew. It was one of
three tail-mounted metal clips that are not needed for landing and posed no
threat to the orbiter's planned landing.
"We've seen
these things come off before and it's really not a concern at all for entry," Kelly
said in a televised interview today. "It's no worry at all."
Discovery's
crew is stowing last bits of cargo to prepare for tomorrow's planned 11:15 a.m.
EDT (1515 GMT) landing here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Kelly and Ham are
also rehearsing landing activities via a computer simulation.
"Overall,
it's a get ready for entry day," NASA's deputy shuttle program manager LeRoy
Cain said Thursday, adding that the orbiter's heat shield appeared to be in
good health for landing.
Saturday
homecoming ahead
Discovery's
six-man, one-woman crew is returning to Earth after a two-week mission to
deliver Japan's massive, billion-dollar
Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS).
"That was
pretty much solid work," Ham said Thursday. "We're all pretty much tired at
this point and getting ready to come home."
Japan's
37-foot (11-meter) laboratory is the size of a tour bus and the second segment
of the Kibo research facility to reach orbit. It followed its small storage
room, which astronauts delivered during an earlier mission in March.
The new
room, the largest ever launched to the space station, includes two windows, a
robotic arm and a small airlock for passing new experiments to a planned
porch-like platform due to launch to the space station next year. A smaller
robotic arm for fine movements is also slated to fly.
"It was
just amazing," said Discovery mission specialist Akihiko Hoshide, who helped
install Kibo, of the view of his country's new space lab during
undocking Wednesday. "I can't really explain it."
Returning
to Earth with Kelly, Ham and Hoshide are mission specialists Karen Nyberg,
Ronald Garan, Michael Fossum and returning station crewmember Garrett Reisman,
who said he was awed at the sheer size of the now nearly three-quarters
complete space station when Discovery undocked.
"It started
out as just a single, little module, and now it's enormous," said Reisman, who
is wrapping up a three-month spaceflight aboard the station and has compared
its interior to the inside of a jumbo jet. "With the addition of Kibo, it looks
like a real space station, and that's exciting."
Reisman, a
NASA astronaut, joined the station's crew in March and was replaced by fellow
U.S. spaceflyer Gregory Chamitoff, who arrived aboard Discovery last week to begin
his own six-month mission.
Discovery astronauts
will set up a special recumbent seat for Reisman today on the shuttle's middeck
that will allow the returning long-duration spaceflyer to return to Earth's
gravity in a reclining position, rather than the upright seats of the shuttle's
short-term flyers.
"The truth
is, adjusting back to gravity is not so easy," Reisman said during the mission.
"Just like adjusting to weightlessness takes some time, adjusting back to
gravity takes some time too."
Discovery
has two chances to land Saturday with NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group at
the Johnson Space Center in Houston forecasting relatively fair conditions on
landing day. Some clouds are expected during the shuttle's first landing
window, with a slight chance of rain showers within 30 miles (48 km) during a
second opportunity at 12:50 p.m. EDT (1650 GMT).
Mission
Control roused Discovery's crew early Friday with the song "Baby Won't You
Please Come Home" by Louis Prima and Keely Smith, a tune chosen for Reisman by
his wife Simone.
"Good
morning to you Houston and a special good morning to Simone, my favorite
Earthling," Reisman said. "Get ready doll face, Discovery's coming home."
NASA is
broadcasting the Discovery's STS-124 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's
shuttle mission updates and NASA TV feed.
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