'Discovery' Safe For Return To Earth

5 August 2005 (RFE/RL) -- NASA has announced that the space shuttle "Discovery" is safe to return to Earth after the U.S. space agency decided not to order a new space walk for another repair.

NASA had considered an additional space walk to repair parts of a thermal blanket that was torn near the cockpit window.

But the agency decided that the loose fibers do not pose a threat to the shuttle when it reenters the atmosphere early Monday.

The "Discovery" astronauts, meanwhile, continued to move provisions into the International Space Station before the shuttle undocks on 6 August for its return to Cape Canaveral, Florida.

(Reuters)