HOUSTON -- NASA engineers said a metal clip from the space shuttle Discovery's braking system has fallen off.
However, NASA said the part isn't critical and won't affect the shuttle's landing on Saturday.
The astronauts reported to Mission Control earlier Friday that they saw a rectangular object floating away from the tail of the shuttle.
“Mike happened to be looking out the window when we were doing checkout, trying to get images of the air surfaces moving and saw what turned out to be a clip float away, and fortunately, got a good picture of it,” said Comm. Mark Kelly.
It turned out to be one of three metal clips around thermal insulation.
The insulation is in the shuttle's rudder speed brake, which is used to slow the spacecraft as it comes in for a landing.
Once the clip was identified, NASA assured astronauts that the shuttle has returned to Earth with the clip missing since the first space shuttle mission, STS-1.
Shortly afterward, the crew described what they called a "bump" on the left side trailing edge of Discovery's rudder.
The bump was later identified as the trailing edge split line barrier of the shuttle's rudder. It matched pre-flight images of the shuttle before it launched into space, and was not an issue.
Landing Scheduled For Saturday
The crew is set to return Saturday at 11:15 a.m. If they do land on their first attempt, they'll cross Florida over Naples and Lakeland before returning to Kennedy Space Center.
If the first landing attempt is called off, the shuttle will enter Florida’s airspace due west of KSC before 1 p.m. and then pass north of Clermont and Orlando.
If they can't land Saturday, they will wait until Sunday.
Of course, you'll be able to see the landing live on News 13, Your Space Station. We'll have team coverage from KSC.
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