Shuttle OK

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor.../space_shuttle

(Did not post the entire article)

Hope to god they are right.

SPACE CENTER, Houston - Space shuttle Discovery escaped any serious damage from the potentially deadly piece of foam that broke off from the fuel tank during liftoff and looks safe to fly home in a week, NASA said Thursday.

The 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.

NASA wanted to make sure Discovery did not suffer the kind of mortal wound that brought down Columbia in 2003.

"The initial report was that it looks extremely good and we don't have anything to worry about on Discovery," said flight operations manager John Shannon. He stressed that it will be another few days before the space agency can conclusively give the shuttle a clean bill of health.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said on ABC: "Everything that we see at this point says that the orbiter is in fact a clean bird."

[scorpio]