US space shuttle unharmed after tool accident

Inspectors found no damage to the Space Shuttle Discovery or to its external reserve tanks after a thin multi-piece measuring tool fell during repair work, NASA said Thursday. The accident has not compromised Discovery's February 24 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), said Allard Beutel, spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A feeler gauge -- a 13-part metal tool about as thick as a piece of paper held together by a retainer screw -- came apart late Wednesday and fell from the launch pad, Beutel told AFP. The accident took place as technicians changed a seal at the ground umbilical carrier plate, or GUCP, on the shuttle's external fuel tank. More

(Source: AFP - Feb 12)