Discovery Cleared to Return to Earth on Monday
The International Space Station moves away from Space Shuttle Discovery Saturday. An official, final "good to go" decision for landing came Sunday.Image source: AP / NASA
An AP newswire article, via USA Today, reports that:
Mission Control on Sunday gave the green light for Discovery to attempt landing Monday, concluding that inspections of the space shuttle's protective skin showed no signs of damage.More here.
The decision was made after NASA engineers reviewed images from an inspection of the shuttle's wings and nose cap, conducted Friday and Saturday by Discovery's crew using sensors at the end of a 50-foot boom attached to a 50-foot robotic arm.
The inspection was to make sure there's never a repeat of the Columbia disaster, in which seven astronauts were killed during re-entry to Earth's atmosphere because of a damaged shuttle wing.
posted by Fergie @ 7/16/2006 12:15:00 PM
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