NASA had been considering skipping the heat shield inspection if a fourth space walk was required - despite insisting on additional safety precautions since damage to a fuel tank lead to the death of Columbia's seven astronauts during re-entry in 2003. An unplanned initial inspection of the heat shield was undertaken as a precaution Monday after sensors detected "very low" impact readings. After initial fears the shuttle had been damaged by space junk or a micrometeoroid, NASA engineers advised Discovery's crew it did not need to conduct an extra inspection.

The solar panel causing the problems is attached to the P6 tress segment. It is part of the station's backbone but has been temporarily attached to one arm of the station since 2000 - awaiting the P5 tress segment which astronauts installed during their first space walk on Tuesday. The P6 segment will be moved to the end of the P5 segment and the solar panel redeployed in 2007 - completing one end of the station.paste_content_here{moscomment}