While the US space agency said it would only be able to give the shuttle the all-clear this weekend, it has expressed confidence that Discovery did not suffer serious damage. The crew pursued an operation to move equipment and supplies onto the International Space Station Friday.

But the crew and experts are also conducting a closer survey of the shuttle's thermal shield to see if it suffered damage during Tuesday's liftoff. Foam debris came off during the launch, prompting NASA to suspend flights after Discovery's return on August 7.

"We were actually quite surprised to hear we had some large pieces of debris fall off the external tank. It wasn't what we had expected," Commander Eileen Collins said from the shuttle. "Frankly, we were disappointed to hear that had happened."

"I didn't expect any large piece of foam to fall off the external tank. We thought we had this problem fixed."

Collins said she believed that NASA experts could "fix" the problem but added that the agency had been right to suspend flights, even though the announcement was made while Discovery was still in space.

"What I'd like to say is this is something that has to be fixed," Collins said. "I don't think we should fly again unless we do something to prevent this from happening again."

A chunk of insulating foam fell off Columbia's external fuel tank and punctured its outer skin, allowing superheated gases to get inside and causing the shuttle to break up in flames as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003. All seven astronauts were killed and the shuttle program was suspended until Discovery's blastoff on Tuesday.

NASA said Thursday it would need three more days to finish its damage assessment. It acknowledged that shards of foam may have hit Discovery's wing but said it was confident that Discovery was not at risk.

Despite the flight suspension, the shuttle Atlantis is on standby to stage a rescue mission, if needed. NASA administrator Michael Griffin said Friday it was possible shuttle flights could resume this year and that the lay-off should not be "long term".

Steve Poulos, manager of the orbiter project office, said: "We are very confident that we are going to have a very clean vehicle that is going to be ready to re-enter."

Discovery co-pilot James Kelly and fellow astronaut Charles Camarda operated a long robotic arm Friday to examine six parts of the shuttle's underbelly that appear to have been hit by debris.

On Saturday, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and US crewmate Stephen Robinson will inspect two other areas on the leading edge of the shuttle's wings during the mission's first spacewalk.

Collins flipped the shuttle over as it approached the International Space Station on Thursday so two astronauts on board the station could photograph Discovery's underside.

All the images taken are now being examined at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Shuttle flight operations manager John Shannon said the images had not revealed any major damage. "Right now, we don't see any significant gouges at all," he told reporters.

The crew has also begun moving about 12 tonnes of equipment and supplies from Discovery onto the space station.

Once that is finished, they will start moving several tonnes of trash and discarded gear from the ISS back onto the shuttle. NASA said the waste accumulated over the past two and a half years had made living conditions cramped on the ISS.

American John Phillips and Russian Sergei Krikalev have been at the station since April.

earlier related report
NASA Says It Will Never Stop Debris Falling From Shuttle
Washington (AFP) Jul 28, 2005 - NASA was warned before the Discovery blasted off this week that it had not fully corrected problems that caused the Columbia disaster and now it has no firm idea when US shuttles will fly again.

The loss of a piece of insulation foam from a fuel tank during Tuesday's launch bore a worrying resemblance to Columbia's tragic story and means -- despite the space agency's reassurances -- that Discovery's crew will face a nervous return to Earth on August 7.

While National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) leaders have said Discovery does not appear to have suffered serious damage, they do admit it was the wrong decision let the launch go ahead.

"We decided it was safe to fly as is. Obviously we were wrong," shuttle programme manager Bill Parsons said.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin acknowledged that NASA had been fortunate with Discovery but was unable to say when the next shuttle mission would be. Atlantis was to have staged the next flight in September.

"We will simply never be able to get the amount of debris shed by the tank down to zero," a disappointed Griffin told NBC television. "We are trying to get it down to a level that cannot damage the orbiter."

In Columbia's case, the foam from an external fuel tank pierced the shuttle's protective outer skin and let in super-heated gases that turned the space vessel into an inferno as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere.

On June 28, a group of experts named by NASA warned the agency had not been able to fully meet the conditions for a return to space set by the official inquiry into the Columbia disaster.

The so-called Return To Flight group said "The external tank still sheds debris that could potentially cripple an orbiter. The hard fact of the matter is that the external tank will always shed debris, perhaps even pieces large enough to do significant damage to the orbiter."

The experts faulted NASA's work on the foam. "The extensive work to develop debris models and transport analysis was, until recently, hampered by a lack of rigour in both development and testing," the said.

In Tuesday's launch, at least three pieces of foam came off the shuttle, including one about 80 centimetres (31 inches) by 35cm (14 inches), slightly smaller than the piece which caused Columbia's destruction.

Fortunately for Discovery's crew, most of the debris came off two minutes after the blast off at an altitude where the atmosphere is so thin that there is a reduced risk of damage to the shuttle. The foam just drifted away.

"Call it luck or whatever, it didnt harm the orbiter," commented Parsons.

In Columbia's case, the foam came off about 82 seconds after the launch. The air slowed the debris before it could clear away from the shuttle which was just reaching full speed.

Wayne Hale, deputy manager of the shuttle programme, said that if the foam had fallen off Discovery earlier "we think it would have been really bad."

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