NASA investigates damage to shuttle
July 27, 2005
A tiny piece of tile and a larger piece of debris came off the space shuttle Discovery as it blasted off Tuesday during its landmark first flight after the Columbia disaster, NASA said.
Unprecedented imagery captured during Tuesday’s ascent to orbit enabled engineers to see two so-called "debris events." A camera mounted on the external tank caught what appeared to be a small fragment of tile coming from Discovery's underside on or near the nose gear doors.
A later image about the time of Solid Rocket Booster separation showed an unidentified piece departing from the tank and exiting away, apparently not striking the orbiter. The crew was notified of these observations and told that imaging experts would be analyzing the pictures.
Mission managers will review the information gathered yesterday and today to help determine the health of Discovery's thermal protection system over the next four days before it is cleared for landing later in the flight.
The US space agency is extremely sensitive about damage to the shuttle because of the cause of the disaster that led to Columbia breaking up as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003.
Discovery is slated to dock with the ISS at 7:18 a.m. EDT Thursday.
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