Cracked Discovery tile may spell collateral damage

By Richard Macey
July 28, 2005
Taking command … Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.

Taking command … Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.

Astronauts aboard the shuttle Discovery, including Australian-born Andy Thomas, may have to wait until they reach the international space station tonight to learn whether their spacecraft suffered any serious damage during launch.

Overnight, Dr Thomas took command of Discovery's 30-metre robot arm, tipped with a camera and laser, to scan the shuttle's surface for damage after two objects, including part of a vital tile designed to protect Discovery from the searing heat when it returns to Earth, fell off the shuttle as it soared into space yesterday.

Planned long before launch, the exercise involved using the boom to sweep the camera and laser over Discovery's nose, and the leading edges of its wings.

A battery of cameras tracking Discovery's launch also photographed a luckless bird slamming into the shuttle's fuel tank, 2.5 seconds after blast-off at 12.39am Sydney time.

The shuttle Columbia was destroyed in 2003 after the leading edge of its left wing was struck by a suitcase-sized lump of foam that fell from its fuel tank. Heat that leaked into the wing during the return to Earth led to Columbia's destruction.

A camera mounted on the shuttle yesterday beamed back pictures of one object breaking off the fuel tank. The object fell without striking Discovery. Of greater concern is the broken tile, almost four centimetres long, spotted falling from underneath Discovery's nose 65 seconds into the flight.

It was part of a 22-centimetre tile near the front landing wheel door, an area that faces extreme temperatures during re-entry.

Newsday reported the shuttle's flight operations manager, John Shannon, as saying it was too early to say if the cracked tile was a problem. However, all shuttle pictures would be examined "frame by frame" to answer the question.

Tonight, as Discovery heads within 180 metres of the space station, commander Eileen Collins will rotate the shuttle, pointing its belly towards the orbiting outpost.Two astronauts aboard the station will then photograph Discovery, providing earthbound engineers with a close-up look at any damage on its underside.

While Discovery is docked to the station, two astronauts will make a space walk to try out methods for repairing tiles.

After reaching orbit yesterday, Ms Collins recalled Columbia's crew. "We miss them and we are continuing their mission. God bless them tonight and God bless their families," she said. Mission control: "We miss them too."
