Houston: NASA officials delivered great news to Discovery's astronauts, declaring that the space shuttle's heat shield was free of damage that would threaten it’s return to Earth.
A television camera in the payload bay of space shuttle Discovery shows the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth, top right, in this image from NASA.
"The TPS (thermal protection system) is 100 percent clear for entry," a mission control official at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, told Discovery Commander Steven Lindsey on Sunday.
"That is great news. That's fantastic," Lindsey, who docked Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, replied.
In this image from NASA, the Leonardo, an Italian-built cargo carrier, hovers over Discovery's cargo bay as it is moved into position by the International Space Station's robot arm Friday, July 7, 2006.
They looked at an insulating blanket poking from Discovery's front windows and a gap filler sticking out from between thermal tiles in the shuttle's underside.
"We are absolutely clear and ready to bring this vehicle home when our mission is accomplished," Steve Poulos, the orbiter program manager, said.
Astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum had coincidentally tested on Saturday a boom extension the shuttle's robotic arm that could have been used to remove the gap filler.PAGE_BREAK
A camera attached to the solid rocket booster shows the tiles on the Space Shuttle Discovery after launch in this image from NASA
"Hopefully we'll never have to use it, but we know we have the capability if we do need to," said shuttle flight director Tony Ceccacci.
The ability to make in-orbit repairs is among several efforts by the US space agency to prevent another tragedy. New repair techniques were tested in the first post-Columbia flight last year.
While officials decided whether to clear the shuttle, the six Discovery astronauts and three ISS crew members removed critical cargo from a container delivered by the space shuttle and prepared for the mission's second spacewalk set for Monday.
On a third spacewalk Wednesday, the astronauts will test repairs on pre-damaged samples of reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC), a composite material used on the shuttle's wing leading edges as a heat shield.
Columbia's demise was caused by foam insulation that peeled off its external fuel tank and pierced its heat shield during liftoff, dooming its return to Earth on February 1, 2003.
NASA has since made several fuel tank modifications to limit the size of debris during blastoff.
Officials were pleased with the performance of Discovery's fuel tank during liftoff, saying it shed small pieces of debris as expected but too late into ascent to cause concern.
NASA officials had said that the Discovery crew could remain in the ISS and wait for a rescue mission if the shuttle suffered irreparable damage.
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