spacetoday.net: Shuttle passes initial inspection

Posted: Thu, Jul 6, 2006, 7:33 AM ET (1133 GMT)
STS-121: Discovery during orbiter inspection (NASA)

Surveys of the exterior of the space shuttle Discovery turned up no evidence of damage to the orbiter's tiles and panels, clearing the way for a docking with the International Space Station on Thursday morning. The STS-121 crew used a boom-mounted camera, held by the shuttle's robot arm, to scan the exterior of the shuttle, finding no evidence of damage to the shuttle caused by falling foam during Tuesday's launch. Exterior cameras during the launch saw only a few small pieces of foam come off the tank as the shuttle headed into orbit, none of which appeared to strike the orbiter. The inspection did reveal one "gapfiller" protruding between tiles on the underside of the orbiter, but unlike the STS-114 mission last year, the gapfiller is not in a critical location and there are no plans to remove it during an EVA. Discovery is scheduled to dock with the ISS at about 10:52 am EDT (1452 GMT). One hour before docking the shuttle will perform a "backflip maneuver" to allow the ISS crew to photograph the underside of the shuttle as an additional inspection for any damage.