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Honouring all astronauts

Commemorative Service held by Discovery Crew

The crew of Columbia Space Shuttle that exploded

You will remember the unfortunate incident of the Columbia Space Shuttle that exploded killing its entire crew. The crew of the space shuttle Discovery commemorated the loss of Columbia's astronauts, their comrades, on August 4.

The commemorative service, which also included the crew of the International Space Station, was aimed at honouring all astronauts, including the seven astronauts who died aboard Columbia when it broke apart over Texas during re-entry on February 1, 2003.

According to international reports, veteran astronaut Eileen Collins, commander of Discovery's STS-114 mission has said, the commemoration ceremony is something they put together to remember the crews who've gone before them, including the Columbia crew.

The Discovery crew also has a picture of the Columbia crew on their flight deck.

In 2003, investigators found that a briefcase-sized chunk of foam insulation fell from Columbia's external tank and pierced the heat shield lining its left wing leading, which ultimately allowed hot atmospheric gases to enter and destroy the vehicle during landing. Discovery's STS-114 crew has conducted an extensive survey of the spacecraft's own heat shield using new tools and methods developed by NASA to enhance shuttle flight safety following the accident.

However, the Discovery mission too had problems after its launch. "I wouldn't fly this flight if I didn't think it was a safe thing to do,'' Collins told the Associated Press, adding that a spacewalk repair to the orbiter's tile-lined belly on Wednesday has boosted her confidence in the shuttle.

"When I saw my colleague Steve pull the gap-filler out, I started clapping and we were cheering in the flight deck."

During the spacewalk, another colleague Robinson pulled two gap-fillers - ceramic fibre cloth - jutting from between the heat-resistant tiles along the forward section of Discovery's belly.

The crew of the space shuttle Discovery

He is the first astronaut ever to be positioned on the underside of the orbiter, let alone perform a repair.

Gap-fillers are used to fill excess space between shuttle tiles and prevent the heat-resistant blocks from bumping against one another.

"Nobody has done this before," Robinson's spacewalking partner Soichi Noguchi, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told Japanese students and officials concerning the repair. "It was an achievement...it was a team effort."

Engineers are still examining a damaged thermal blanket just under the left window on Discovery's forward section.

While not a heating concern for re-entry, engineers want to be sure pieces of the small blanket won't rip off and pose a potential hazard to the rest of the orbiter downstream.

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