Discovery's Dangling Gapfiller Removed by Hand

Cyclotron_Boy writes "According to the New Scientist and NASA TV, Discovery's gap-fillers were removed successfully by hand by astronaut Steve Robinson earlier today during the eva. They didn't even have to use the forceps or the makeshift hacksaw-blade tool."

Comments

Re:Gap Filler

[Nytewynd]

The idea was that this dangling material might focus heat onto those surrounding tiles like a blowtorch on re-entry. Intead of the heat being evenly distributed over the entire surface, that area might get super-hot and burn up the shuttle.

The fabric is to prevent the tiles from banging together on lift-off. From the gist of the article, it sounds like it doesn't matter for re-entry. I guess they'll find out the exciting way when they try to land.