M A I N   N E W S

Discovery crew unloads cargo to space station

Houston, July 31
Discovery astronauts on the first shuttle trip to the International Space Station since 2002 — and perhaps the last one for some time — worked today to unload tons of supplies and equipment brought from Earth for the station’s two-man crew.

The shuttle astronauts originally had planned to give the station 15 tons of items stowed in an Italian-made cargo unit but were adding computers, office supplies, food, water and other items scrounged from Discovery in case there were no more flights for a while.

“We’re looking forward to lots of nice goodies coming across (from the shuttle),” a space station controller at Johnson Space Center in Houston told the station astronauts.

NASA said yesterday that Discovery’s mission would be extended by a day to give the astronauts time to unload the extra cargo. Return to Earth now was set for August 8.

Television shots showed the astronauts struggling in the weightlessness of space to move a large unit of research equipment into place on the station.

As space opened in the cargo unit, they were to fill it back up with 13 tonnes of space junk that has piled up on the station since it last linked up with a shuttle in November 2002.

Resupply of the space station took on added urgency on Wednesday when the US space agency announced it would ground the shuttle fleet after videos showed insulating foam from Discovery’s external fuel tank breaking loose as the shuttle launched from Florida.

Loose foam from the fuel tank was blamed for the Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003, and was not supposed to happen again after NASA spent 1 billion dollars and 2-1/2 years trying to fix the problem.

A briefcase-size piece of foam collided with Columbia’s wing at launch and broke a hole in its heat shield. Columbia disintegrated upon its return to Earth, and the seven astronauts on board died.

Discovery was the first shuttle to fly since Columbia. NASA said none of its three shuttles will go into space again until the foam problem is solved.

Russian spacecraft have filled in for the shuttle to ferry supplies to the 95 billion dollars space station but they cannot transport as much cargo or the large modules used to piece together the still-unfinished outpost.

Discovery suffered a few nicks to its protective tile at launch because of flying debris but deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said laser and television scans of the orbiter showed no major problems.

NASA engineers studying the scan data had declared 90 per cent of Discovery’s outer shell safe for return to Earth and were expected to give full, final approval tomorrow, he said.

In television interviews from the shuttle, the Discovery crew expressed confidence they would return safely.

“From all indications, it looks like it’s a clean vehicle and we’re good to go to return home,” said mission specialist Charles Camarda. — Reuters