Washington: The US shuttle Discovery was closing in on the International Space Station to deliver food, a lab freezer and a treadmill to the orbiting outpost.
As the shuttle sped toward the ISS, the astronauts conducted a routine inspection of Discovery`s heat shield by manoeuvring a sensor on a robotic arm to look for possible damage.
Pilot Kevin Ford and mission specialists Patrick Forrester and Jose Hernandez took turns at the controls of the sensor system to inspect the shuttle`s nose cap and its right and left wings, NASA said.
But a more comprehensive inspection will be performed one hour ahead of the 0634 IST today docking with the ISS, during a shuttle backflip that allows the station`s crew to photograph the heat shield from some 183 metres to look for any damage that may have occurred during liftoff.
The inspections have been taking place in every shuttle mission since heat shield damage caused Columbia to explode as it returned to Earth in 2003, killing its seven astronauts.
The shuttle has begun its latest journey with the failure of one of two small steering jets that flank the orbiter nose after a leak, but NASA said the loss would have no impact on Discovery`s flight or return to Earth.
Bureau Report
