Drama in space - a bone was torn from the side of the shuttle Discovery and flew into space

It is possible that this may result in the postponement of the landing planned for tomorrow

In the end the ferry did land safely - see a recent report at this link

Space Shuttle Discovery crew members spent Friday preparing for homecoming and the end of mission STS-124.

However, after completing the routine checks the day before the landing of the shuttle's steering jets, the team members noticed that a rectangular block about half a meter long and about 30 centimeters wide floated from the shuttle and further behind the back of the right wing. Immediately after that, the astronauts described from the teacher on the left side of the flow lip of the shuttle's steering system.

Experts on the ground are examining the video photographs of the bone and the bump while the crew members meanwhile continue to store objects in the passenger cabin in preparation for the planned landing on Saturday.

Source - NASA website

Problematic interpretation/timing

If the malfunction requires the astronauts to wait in space for a long period of time, a problem may arise because the shuttle has already left the orbit of the space station and it will take a lot of fuel, which is unlikely to be in it, to return it there. The shuttle itself does not have enough food, water and air for a long stay of several weeks, which will be required if NASA decides to launch a rescue shuttle. Such a shuttle is also not available because the next mission, STS-126, is only planned for September and therefore the shuttle Endeavor is still far from being ready for takeoff. The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope (with backup on standby by the shuttle Endeavor) was delayed from August to October due to delays in building the external fuel tank for this mission.

NASA hopes that the astronauts will be able to fix the malfunction in space and land safely.