spacetoday.net: Shuttle cleared for reentry

Posted: Mon, Jul 10, 2006, 8:02 AM ET (1202 GMT)
STS-121: underside of Discovery (NASA)

Shuttle managers have concluded that the shuttle Discovery doesn't require any repairs to its thermal protection system before returning to Earth at the end of its current mission. Analysis of data collected during launch and in orbit led engineers to conclude that the shuttle's external tank shed far less foam than on any previous mission and the orbiter suffered virtually no damage to its fragile tiles and leading edge panels. An inspection of the shuttle while in orbit did turn up two gapfillers protruding between tiles on the orbiter's underside, but officials concluded there is no need to remove the gapfillers prior to reentry. The STS-121 crew, which spent Sunday helping move cargo into the station, is not preparing for the mission's second EVA on Monday, where astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum will repair the station's mobile transporter, a "railcar" that runs along the station's truss.