CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA mission managers cleared the shuttle Discovery for a
weekend landing Friday after swiftly settling concerns with a lost metal clip
that drifted away from the spacecraft earlier in the day.
Commanded by
veteran spaceflyer Mark Kelly, the shuttle is on track
to land on a runway here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 11:15 a.m. EDT
(1515 GMT) on Saturday.
"We have a
very healthy crew, a very healthy vehicle," said NASA entry flight director
Richard Jones.
Discovery's
seven-astronaut crew is wrapping up a two-week mission to the International
Space Station, where they delivered a new crewmember, spare parts for a Russian
toilet and installed Japan's $1
billion Kibo laboratory. They also performed three spacewalks and attached
a storage room atop the new Kibo lab during the flight.
Engineers,
today, gave Discovery's heat shield a clean bill of health based on imagery and
data from Wednesday scan by the crew using the shuttle's sensor-tipped
inspection pole.
But it was
early today that Kelly and his crew spotted a shiny, rectangular
piece of metal drifting away from the shuttle's aft after pushing Discovery
through a standard - but rigorous - set of thruster and flight control surface
exercises.
"It's a
fairly dynamic activity in the aft part of the vehicle," said LeRoy Cain,
NASA's deputy shuttle program manager. Debris after spotted after similar
pre-landing checks aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 2006 led to one-day mission
extension for extra heat shield inspections.
Discovery
mission specialist Michael Fossum quickly snapped video and photographs of the
object, which engineers later identified as a small metal clip used to bridge
heat-resistant insulation on the shuttle's tail during liftoff. Similar clips
have fallen off orbiters in past missions and their loss poses no threat to the
orbiter's landing.
While Kelly
initially estimated it could be up to 1 1/2 feet (0.4 meters) long due to lack
of reference, the V-shaped tab was about 2 1/2 inches by 1 inch (6 cm by 2 cm),
Cain said. Mission managers are now considering having astronauts stand by with
cameras during future checks to quickly rule out similar debris, he added.
In a
televised interview today, Kelly said he was initially concerned over the
debris when it was an unknown object, but had no worries once it was
identified.
"We were
impressed at how quickly [and] the quality of work they were able to do," Kelly
said.
A
protruding bit of material on the tail rudder also reported by the astronauts
was actually part of the shuttle's thermal barrier and of no concern, Cain
said.
Discovery
has two opportunities to land at the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow, though
there is a slight chance of nearby rain showers for the second approach at 12:50
p.m. EDT (1650 GMT). The shuttle
launched May 31 and is NASA's third orbiter to fly this year.
The shuttle
has enough supplies to remain in space until Tuesday, allowing mission managers
more freedom in targeting its primary landing site here in Florida. Should foul
weather thwart a Florida return, NASA would activate an alternate landing site
at California's Edwards Air Force Base, where the orbiter would have to make
use of a new, shorter runway due to ongoing construction.
But Jones
said the weather in Florida through Monday is encouraging for Discovery's
return to the Kennedy Space Center.
"We're looking
forward to a successful landing tomorrow," Jones said.
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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