Discovery crew unloads cargo to space station

By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Discovery astronauts on the first
shuttle trip to the International Space Station since 2002 –
and perhaps the last one for some time — worked on Sunday to
unload tons of supplies and equipment brought from Earth for
the station’s two-man crew.

The shuttle astronauts originally had planned to give the
station 15 tons of items stowed in an Italian-made cargo unit
but were adding computers, office supplies, food, water and
other items scrounged from Discovery in case there were no more
flights for a while.

“We’re looking forward to lots of nice goodies coming
across (from the shuttle),” a space station controller at
Johnson Space Center in Houston told the station astronauts.

NASA said on Saturday that Discovery’s mission would be
extended by a day to give the astronauts time to unload the
extra cargo. Return to Earth now was set for Aug. 8.

Television shots showed the astronauts struggling in the
weightlessness of space to move a large unit of research
equipment into place on the station.

As space opened in the cargo unit, they were to fill it
back up with 13 tons of space junk that has piled up on the
station since it last linked up with a shuttle in November
2002.

Resupply of the space station took on added urgency on
Wednesday when the U.S. space agency announced it would ground
the shuttle fleet after videos showed insulating foam from
Discovery’s external fuel tank breaking loose as the shuttle
launched from Florida.

Loose foam from the fuel tank was blamed for the Columbia
disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, and was not supposed to happen again
after NASA spent $1 billion and 2-1/2 years trying to fix the
problem.

A briefcase-size piece of foam collided with Columbia’s
wing at launch and broke a hole in its heat shield. Columbia
disintegrated upon its return to Earth, and the seven
astronauts on board died.

FLYING DEBRIS

Discovery was the first shuttle to fly since Columbia. NASA
said none of its three shuttles will go into space again until
the foam problem is solved.

Russian spacecraft have filled in for the shuttle to ferry
supplies to the $95 billion space station but they cannot
transport as much cargo or the large modules used to piece
together the still-unfinished outpost.

Discovery suffered a few nicks to its protective tile at
launch because of flying debris but deputy shuttle program
manager Wayne Hale said laser and television scans of the
orbiter showed no major problems.

NASA engineers studying the scan data had declared 90
percent of Discovery’s outer shell safe for return to Earth and
were expected to give full, final approval on Monday, he said.

In television interviews from the shuttle, the Discovery
crew expressed confidence they would return safely.

“From all indications, it looks like it’s a clean vehicle
and we’re good to go to return home,” said mission specialist
Charles Camarda.

They repeated statements in earlier interviews that they
were surprised foam had come off the shuttle fuel tank after so
much work by NASA to prevent it, but said they agreed with
NASA’s decision to ground the shuttle fleet.

“We were of a single mind up here, I think, that it was
necessary to stop flying to repair this problem,” said Andy
Thomas.

Steve Robinson and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, who made a
seven-hour spacewalk on Saturday to test damage-repair
techniques and make repairs on the space station, were
preparing for another spacewalk on Monday.