Relief And Remembrance

Discovery Crew Was Thinking Of Columbia Colleagues During Mission

(CBS/AP)  White House spokesman Trent Duffy called it "a proud day for America."

With Discovery back safely on the ground, NASA's full attention now shifts to figuring out what caused multiple pieces of foam insulation to fly off Discovery's external tank during launch. Columbia was brought down by wing damage caused by a foam debris strike during launch and the No. 1 priority of NASA's return to flight was fixing the insulation to minimize foam shedding.

But during Discovery's launch, a 0.9-pound chunk of foam peeled away from the tank just after solid booster separation. Two other relatively large pieces separated from the tank near the point where the shuttle's nose attaches to bipod struts and a fourth piece broke away from another area.

But the foam is not the only problem for the next launch.

The shuttle Atlantis had been scheduled for launch on the second post-Columbia mission in September, but resolution of the foam problem made that target window problematic. Now, with Discovery back on the ground in California, a September launch is no longer thought to be possible. Discovery must be ready for launch as a rescue vehicle in case Atlantis suffers any significant damage on its flight and Tuesday's West Coast landing will add a week or so to Discovery's turn-around time.

It will also cost NASA an extra $1 million, reports CBS News Correspondent Peter King, and force the astronauts' families waiting at the Kennedy Space Center to wait a little longer for their reunions.

Rav Camarda, the mother of astronaut Charles Camarda, told WCBS-TV, she was feeling "a little bit of everything."

And, at her home in New York City's Ozone Park, she had a message for her son: "Thank God you are home. God bless you. And don't let me go through this again. I'm too old to go through this again."

Atlantis' launch already had slipped to no earlier than Sept. 22, giving it just four days to get off the ground before the September launch window closes. It now appears Discovery will be unable to support that window, even if the foam problem can be resolved in time.

The only other available launch window before the end of the year is a three-day period in November. Another short window opens in January but the first lengthy opportunity to send a shuttle back to the international space station is in March.

Despite the disappointment over the launch-day foam events, Discovery's crew chalked up a near flawless mission, delivering tons of supplies to the space station and staging three spacewalks to install a new stabilizing gyroscope, an external tool and spare parts depot and to demonstrate potential heat-shield tile and wing leading edge repair techniques.

The astronauts also carried out an unprecedented inspection of the shuttle's heat shield, using a large sensor-equipped boom to examine the wing leading edges and nose cap and utilizing cameras on the station to photograph the orbiter's underside in great detail.

During Columbia's decent on Feb. 1, 2003, instruments on the shuttle recorded the first signs of abnormal heating just four minutes and 50 seconds after entry interface as plasma began.

But Tuesday, Discovery's fall to Earth appeared problem free as the shuttle streaked toward California.

---

CBS News Space Consultant William Harwood has covered America's space program full time for nearly 20 years, focusing on space shuttle operations, planetary exploration and astronomy. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood provides up-to-the-minute space reports for CBS News and regularly contributes to Spaceflight Now and The Washington Post.