HOUSTON -- Commander Eileen Collins said
astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread
environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that
greater care was needed to protect natural resources.
Her comments came as NASA pondered whether to send
astronauts out on an extra spacewalk to repair additional
heat-protection damage on the first shuttle mission since the
2003 Colombia disaster.
Thunderstorms form a backdrop as the Space Shuttle Discovery's remote
manipulator system (RMS) robotic arm extends itself at International
Space, August 2, 2005. Photo by Nasa/Reuters
|
Discovery is linked with the International Space Station
and orbiting 220 miles above the Earth.
"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can
see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some
parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space
with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi.
"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view,
people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources
that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with
Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag
and holding a colorful fan.
Collins, making her fourth shuttle flight, said the view
from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be
protected, too.
"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg,
it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much
air, we need to protect what we have."
While Collins and Noguchi chatted, NASA officials were
deciding whether a rip in an insulation blanket that protects
part of the shuttle surface could tear off and strike the
spacecraft when Discovery re-enters the atmosphere, possibly
causing damage.
Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said NASA's
concern stemmed from an abundance of caution since Columbia.
"I think in the old days we would not have worried about
this so much," he said in a briefing.
The agency was to decide later on Thursday whether to order
a spacewalk to repair the blanket. The spacewalk would take
place on Saturday if needed.
Noguchi and astronaut Steve Robinson already have done
three spacewalks, including a landmark walk on Wednesday to
remove loose cloth strips protruding from Discovery's belly.
NASA feared the strips could cause dangerous heat damage when
the shuttle lands on Monday.
After Discovery comes home, there may not be a shuttle
mission for a while because NASA has suspended flights until it
figures out how to stop insulation foam from the spacecraft's
external fuel tank from coming loose at launch.
Loose tank foam was blamed for the break up of Columbia
over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003, and was spotted again when
Discovery blasted off on July 26.
A report in The New York Times suggested NASA was not as
careful as it could have been about the loose foam issue.
A briefcase-size piece of foam broke from its fuel tank and
struck Columbia at launch, punching a hole in its wing heat
shield. Sixteen days later, superheated gases entered the
breach as the ship descended into the atmosphere for landing,
causing it to break apart and killing its seven astronauts.
NASA spent 2 1/2 years and $1 billion on safety upgrades
after Columbia and was dismayed to see loose foam at
Discovery's launch.
The Times said an internal NASA memo, written in December
by a retired NASA engineer brought back to monitor the quality
of the foam operation, complained deficiencies remained in the
way foam was being applied to the fuel tank and warned "there
will continue to be a threat of critical debris generation."
A NASA spokesman told the newspaper a response to the memo
had been written, but could not be released because of
confidentiality rules.
A spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston told Reuters
he had not yet seen the Times report and could not comment.
© 2005 Reuters
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