Six pieces of foam came off Discovery

The shuttle robot arm has been activated in preparation for Wednesday's inspection of Discovery's thermal tiles.


NASA managers believe at least six pieces of foam came off the external tank during Discovery's 8.5-minute trip to orbit.

They also believe that ice pieces on a fuel line vibrated off soon after launch when damage to the orbiter was unlikely.

"Our test data and our flight history data said, that in all likelihood, it would come off early," said launch integration manager Leroy Cain, who said the 4-inch by 1.5-inch piece of ice could have been two or three times larger without endangering the crew.

With bad weather moving in, Discovery launched through a thin layer of clouds at 11:38 a.m. EDT. It will dock with the International Space Station about 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

The shuttle crew will use the robot arm Wednesday to get a closer look at the heat shielding on the orbiter to see whether components were damaged. The space station crew will photograph the underside of the orbiter on its approach on Thursday.

Cain said he believed the ice on a 17-inch liquid hydrogen fuel line was frozen residue from an early morning rain rather than condensation from inside the tank.

"The ice problem was one we just needed to understand what we were dealing with.... We determined we had a situation we could go launch safely," Cain said.

The six pieces of foam came off after solid rocket booster separation, when the shuttle was high in the atmosphere. The thinness of the air at that altitude prevents the foam from being slammed into the shuttle.

"I don't think we saw anything that's abnormal," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations.

NASA will review video footage of the launch to determine where the foam came from.

Additionally, the carbon composite wing leading edges with tiny scratches are not anticipated to cause fatal problems during re-entry. During flight day two, astronauts will more carefully scan the wing where the possible damage lies. NASA recently discovered the problem and voted to launch, despite warnings from an independent engineering committee.

"We analyzed the heck out of this. There were no shortcuts. There was no lack of discussion," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations.

"We're looking at the other vehicles. We think we're seeing the early stages of something we need to pay attention to," said Gerstenmaier. "We're going to have to do some creative work to figure out what the data is really telling us."

Discovery is scheduled to land Nov. 6 and Atlantis is scheduled to fly Dec. 6.