NASA rules out fourth spacewalk

HOUSTON - NASA has cleared lingering concerns about shuttle Discovery's condition to return home and told the crew to pack up their spacesuits because there was no need for a fourth spacewalk.

"We have good news," astronaut Julie Payette, speaking from NASA's Mission Control, radioed to the crew. "The MMT (mission management team) just got to the conclusion that the blanket underneath the commander's window is safe for return."

"There is no issue. So basically, no EVA four," she said referring to NASA's acronym for extravehicular activity or spacewalk.

The reply from Japan's Soichi Noguchi, who along with astronaut Steve Robinson, successfully completed three spacewalks during the mission, was subdued.

"That's ... ahh. I would say good news," Soichi said.

Engineers had been studying whether a piece of damaged cloth insulation beneath the commander's left cockpit window could break off as the shuttle flew in for landing and damage a part of the shuttle critical for flight, such as the tail or a movable body flap.

If NASA had decided to repair or remove the damaged blanket, Discovery's 13-day mission, which is the first since the 2003 Columbia accident, would likely have been extended another day so Noguchi and Robinson could make a fourth spacewalk on Friday.

The shuttle has been parked at the space station since July 28 and was scheduled to depart early Saturday. Touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center would occur on Monday.

During their spacewalks, Noguchi and Robinson restored the space station's prime steering system, installed a storage platform and removed two protruding cloth strips from the shuttle's heat shield in the shuttle program's first spacewalk to the underside of an orbiter.

NASA feared the strips could cause dangerous heat damage when the shuttle lands on Monday.

US President George W. Bush told reporters at his Texas ranch that he was amazed at the shuttle crew's repair work and confident in the mission directors' judgment.

"I know that the mission directors will make the right decision about how to proceed. Ours is a country that values the safety of our citizens, particularly those we ask to take risks in space," Bush said.

- REUTERS