Shuttle's Heat Shield Repaired In-Flight

For the first time in the shuttle's 24-year history, an astronaut performed repairs to the spaceship's underside while in flight. Astronaut Steve Robinson successfully made repairs to the Space Shuttle Discovery's heat shield early Wednesday morning, further ensuring a safe return for the astronauts.

"It looks like this big patient is cured," Robinson radioed back after he was successfully able to pull several loose fiber strips out from behind one of the heat tiles.

While NASA was unsure if the fibers would pose a threat to the ship, the organization is taking no chances after the loss of Columbia and its crew in 2003.

Robinson said the strips, made of ceramic cloth, were easy enough to remove just by pulling on them. NASA had him take along several tools just in case the job would be harder than expected, but they proved unnecessary.

No damage was apparent to any of the protective heat shield tiles after the repairs. Engineers had feared that leaving the fibers on the ship during re-entry could cause unnecessary friction and heat stress, which could have put the astronauts in danger and possibly even lead to the shuttle burning up during re-entry.

Following the success of this spacewalk, another may be scheduled before Discovery lands to fix a problem with insulation around one of the shuttle's windows.

Worries about damage to Discovery first arose after the August 2 launch when loose foam was spotted coming off the fuel tank. The damage repaired Wednesday is not believed to be from foam impacts, NASA said.