Source: Fox News
HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard space shuttle Discovery hit a bump in the road on their otherwise smooth preparation for re-entry — a bump on the tail fin, to be more precise.
After finishing the standard pre-landing steering-jet test, the crew spotted a strange bump on the rudder, Discovery’s vertical tail fin. They also saw something small and rectangular floating near the right wiing.
Experts on the ground in Houston and Cape Canaveral, Fla., pored over photos and video of both objects to determine whether either were cause for concern while the crew continued to get ready for Saturday’s landing.
The shuttle’s heat shield has already been given the thumbs-up for the return trip to Earth.
“Discovery is coming home,” Garrett Reisman, who is returning on the shuttle after living on the international space station for three months, said earlier Friday.
The landing is scheduled for 11:13 a.m. EDT at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Friday is “a get ready for entry day” as the shuttle’s entry systems are tested to ensure they are working properly, said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.
Late Thursday afternoon, engineers finished scrutinizing all the images of the shuttle’s heat shield on the wing and nose collected Wednesday with a laser-tipped inspection boom.
Discovery’s heat shield was set to be given formal clearance for landing during the mission management team’s meeting Friday afternoon. Discovery is scheduled to land Saturday morning in Florida.
The thermal survey — an exhaustive search for damage — was conducted later than usual because the astronauts had to wait until they got to the space station to retrieve their inspection pole.
There wasn’t enough room aboard Discovery for the pole at liftoff because the Japanese lab they had took up nearly all the room in its payload bay.
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