Space Center, Houston – Space shuttle Discovery escaped damage from the potentially deadly chunk of foam that broke off from the fuel tank during liftoff but may have been struck in the wing by a much smaller piece, NASA said Thursday.
Even if the slight foam fragment did hit, the impact most likely caused no significant damage, said deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.
“We think that that little piece of foam, at that altitude, did not cause any damage of concern,” Hale said at an evening news conference.
Despite the latest development, officials said Discovery still looks safe to fly home in a week but stressed that it will be a few days before the space agency can conclusively give the shuttle a clean bill of health.
The mostly welcome news came after Mission Control received stunningly detailed photographs of Discovery taken by the crew aboard the international space station. The shuttle executed an unprecedented backflip to bare its belly to the cameras before docking with the space station.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration wanted to make sure Discovery did not suffer the kind of mortal wound that brought down Columbia in 2003.
On Wednesday, NASA suspended all further shuttle flights after learning that a big piece of foam insulation weighing just short of a pound came flying off Discovery’s external fuel tank in an alarming repeat of the problem that doomed Columbia. Neither that piece nor most of the other, smaller chunks struck Discovery, officials said.
The one that may have hit Discovery’s right wing came off about 20 seconds after the big piece and was from the same general area, Hale said. None of the wing sensors detected anything unusual there, and a laser-tipped inspection boom also did not pick up any damage.
Camera views during liftoff were inconclusive because the foam tumbled out of sight.
