Space Shuttle Damaged in Landing

The space shuttle Discovery blew one tire, shredded another and sustained “fairly significant” damage to its heat-protective tiles when it landed here today, capping the 16th flight in the shuttle program.

Although Discovery left one of its two satellites drifting uselessly in the wrong orbit, NASA said it had been “truly a remarkable mission.”

The two damaged tires were both on the right side of the shuttle, which has only two tires on each side. A cursory check indicated that the tires were damaged when the shuttle’s brakes locked while coasting to a halt on the three-mile runway, a space agency spokesman said.

Jesse Moore, head of the shuttle program for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the damage to the shuttle’s protective tiles “looked fairly significant” but it may be several days before either the extent of the damage or the cause is known.

May Have Been Hit by Birds

Moore did not rule out the possibility that the shuttle was hit by birds on the final approach to the runway, which cuts through a bird sanctuary. The most serious tile damage appeared to be on the tip of the left wing.

Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah), head of the Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA’s budget and a member of the crew, had a little trouble getting his “earth legs” back after the landing. The senator, who admitted being sick for two days during the flight, had to be supported by a member of the welcoming committee as he left the shuttle and boarded a van.

“The senator is feeling fine,” Dr. Donald Stewart, a NASA flight surgeon, said after examining Garn. “He just took a little time to get his earth legs back.”

As he boarded a plane to fly to Houston, Garn appeared to be in good health and said he had “never had a more fantastic experience” than his flight aboard Discovery.

Unrehearsed Space Walk

The seven-day flight was marked by both triumphs and frustrations for the crew of six men and one woman. It was historic in that two astronauts, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, 40, and David Griggs, 45, carried off America’s first unrehearsed space walk as though they had practiced it for months.

The two men attached jury-rigged tools to the end of the shuttle’s robotic arm as part of an effort to save a communications satellite that failed to activate itself after it was released from the Discovery Saturday morning.

Dr. M. Rhea Seddon, 37, reached out with the 50-foot arm and yanked a lever on the satellite, which was thought to be the cause of the problem, but that analysis turned out to be wrong.

Moore said the effort, though unsuccessful, “demonstrated once again the value of having men and women in space.”

Growing Competition

As head of the shuttle program, Moore is concerned about growing competition for the commercial satellite business from Europe and private corporations. Although the failure of the satellite to reach its right orbit was not blamed on the shuttle or its crew, there is growing concern from the commercial sector over the shuttle as a launch vehicle.

Moore said the rescue attempt was “a demonstration to our customers that NASA cares about their systems.”

This was the fourth flight for the Discovery, and it represented somewhat of a turning point for the shuttle program. For the first time, three operational shuttles are on the ground at Kennedy. The Challenger is on the pad, where it is to be launched April 29, and the Atlantis, the newest member of the fleet, is being checked out after arriving at Kennedy last Saturday.