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NASA says lost object from shuttle no threat to entry BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 13, 2008 Updated at 1 p.m. with CBS News crew interview Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston believe a flashing bit of debris spotted floating away from the shuttle Discovery this morning was a clip used to secure thermal insulation in the ship's rudder/speed brake to protect against engine heat during ascent. Flight controllers told the astronauts the lost clip poses no threat to a safe re-entry. As for an apparent bump, or protrusion, spotted on the shuttle's vertical rudder/speed brake, engineers concluded it looked that way before launch and was not considered a problem, welcome news on an already busy Friday the 13th. "As you know, we've been talking about this down here and we're confident this is going to be no impact to entry," said astronaut Terry Virts in mission control. "I'll talk about the two different objects we saw separately. First of all, the bump that you saw on the rudder/speed brake we think is nominal. We compared it with pre-flight imagery and it looks exactly like it did pre flight. I think the reason you could see it was because the rudder was kind of angled to the left after the FCS (flight control system) checkout a little bit. But there's no issue with that. "The other object that floated away, turns out was a trailing edge split-line barrier. Thanks to the pictures you took the resolution was very good, we were able to confirm it was that. That trailing edge split-line barrier, it looks like a (V-shaped) clip, its function is for ascent heating only. This is something we've seen ever since STS-1, orbiters have come back with those missing. It's just not a factor for entry." Commander Mark Kelly told CBS News a few minutes later during an already scheduled interview that he had no concerns. "Mike (Fossum) happened to be looking out the window when we were doing FCS checkout to try to get some images of the aerosurfaces moving and saw what turned out to be a clip floating away and fortunately, got a really good picture of it," Kelly said. Flight controllers later sent up a Powerpoint presentation that compared Fossum's pictures with engineering drawings and "we were impressed at how quickly, the quality of the work they were able to do in that short amount of time," Kelly said. "It was interesting, the picture that Mike took had those three tack welds on it. ... You could line those up with the ground images and you can pretty conclusively say that's the same clip." Otherwise, Kelly said, Discovery's entry systems checked out well and with good weather expected in Florida, the crew is optimistic about making an on-time return to the Kennedy Space Center to close out a successful space station assembly mission. Touchdown on runway 15 is targeted for 11:15 a.m. Astronaut Garrett Reisman, returning to Earth after three months aboard the international lab complex, said he's looking forward to seeing his wife, friends and family again, "sleeping in my own bed and using my own toilet." Reisman will make the trip back to Earth resting on his back in a reclining seat on Discovery's lower deck to ease his return to the uncomfortable tug of Earth's gravity. He said today he's hopeful a strict exercise schedule will help him re-adapt without any major problems. "I've been very diligent about keeping up with the exercise regimen we use as our primary countermeasure for keeping our bones and muscles healthy," he told CBS News. "Of course, vestibular effects, balance and stuff, it's a little more difficult to predict how that's going to hit me. I'm cautiously optimistic on the basis of anecdotal evidence because I'm short. So my sensory organs are a little closer to my center of gravity and my heart has a little less distance to pump to my brain. I've been waiting my whole life and finally I think being short is going to come in handy for once!" Reisman, Kelly and their crewmates - pilot Kenneth Ham, flight engineer Ronald Garan, Karen Nyberg, Michael Fossum and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide - were awakened shortly after 3 a.m. to begin their final full day in space. Appropriately enough, mission control beamed up a recording of "Baby Won't You Please Come Home" by Louis Prima and Keely Smith. "Good morning, Houston. And a special good morning to Simone, my favorite earthling," Reisman radioed to his wife. "Get ready, doll face. Discovery's coming home!" Kelly, Ham and Garan tested Discovery's re-entry systems early today, firing up one of the ship's three hydraulic power units, cycling the orbiter's ailerons and rudder and test firing maneuvering jets. There were no problems of any significance. But a few minutes after the tests concluded, Kelly reported seeing a piece of debris floating away around 7:35 a.m. "We observed an object depart aft of the starboard wing," Kelly said. "Looked like, and obviously it's hard to tell dimensions and size looking out the aft windows, but it looked like it might have been a foot to a foot and a half in width. And we've got a pretty reasonable image of it." A few minutes later, the crew reported seeing a small protrusion where two sections of the rudder/speed brake come together. They downlinked a short video clip of the debris, along with still pictures shot with a digital camera, and offered to power up Discovery's robot arm for a closer look at the rudder. Flight controllers told the astronauts to sit tight and a few hours later, Virts told Kelly that engineers were able to confirm the debris was, in fact, a clip used to hold a thermal barrier in place in the rudder/speed brake. "Well there was a little bit (of concern) when we saw it, not knowing what it was," Kelly told WCBS Radio. "But fortunately, Mike got some good pictures of it, sent them down to the ground and within a couple of minutes they took a look and were able to narrow it down to a part that protects the rudder/speed brake during ascent, from the heating during liftoff. So we've seen these things come off before and it's not a concern at all for entry."
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VIDEO:
CBS NEWS AND WCBS RADIO INTERVIEW THE CREW 