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Discovery crew readies for space station departure

Posted on: Friday, 5 August 2005, 03:50 CDT

By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Discovery astronauts started packing up on Friday for their departure from the International Space Station after NASA finally said the shuttle was safe enough to come home from the first flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

The crew finished loading an Italian-built cargo unit with more than three tonnes of trash and unneeded equipment from the station for the return to Earth and stowed gear that included space suits used on three spacewalks by astronauts Steve Robinson and Soichi Noguchi.

Late on Friday, the Discovery crew was to say goodbye to station crewmembers Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips, close the hatch and get ready to undock early on Saturday.

The shuttle was scheduled to land in Florida on Monday.

Because of safety measures put in place after Columbia fell from the sky over Texas, Discovery has been videotaped, photographed, laser-inspected and, in a shuttle program first, repaired by the spacewalking Robinson.

NASA gave serious thought to sending him and Noguchi out again to fix a small tear in an insulating cloth protecting the surface of Discovery near the commander's window, but decided on Thursday enough was enough.

The space agency had feared that a cloth piece weighing less than an ounce (28 grams) could come off during descent into the atmosphere and cause dangerous damage to the 100-tonshuttle.

But, said deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale, "We've assessed this risk to the very best of our engineering knowledge and we believe the vehicle is safe to fly and for re-entry."

The decision that Discovery was safe came after it already had been in space 10 days.

Discovery was the first shuttle to visit the space station since Endeavour made the trip in November 2002 and may be the last for some time after NASA last week suspended further flights.

Videos of Discovery's July 26 launch showed loose insulation foam breaking from the external fuel tank, which was the same problem that caused Columbia's demise when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

NASA, which spent 2 1/2 years and $1 billion on safety upgrades after Columbia, said its fleet of three shuttles will not fly again until the foam problem is fixed.

A 1.67-pound (0.76-kg) piece of tank foam struck Columbia at launch and punched a hole in its wing heat shield.

Sixteen days later, as Columbia glided toward landing, superheated gases generated by re-entry penetrated the wing and caused the shuttle to fall apart. The seven astronauts on board perished.

Discovery suffered minor damage as it rose from Florida, -- some of believed to be from foam impacts -- but nothing bad enough to put the shuttle in danger, Hale said.

Source: REUTERS

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