美国宇航局（NASA）负责人7月31日表示，他们将在8月1日判定“发现号”隔热层凸起的两块材料是否会对飞船返回地球造成威胁，以免“发现号”重蹈“哥伦比亚号”航天飞机的悲剧。宇航局计划让宇航员在太空中进行修复工作。外电报道如下：A couple short strips of fabric dangling from Discovery's belly may require an unprecedented repair by spacewalking astronauts, if engineers determine there's even a possibility that the problem could endanger the shuttle during descent, NASA said Sunday.

Teams of experts were scrambling to understand just how serious the problem was, with "strong arguments" raging on what to do, if anything.

The trouble has nothing to do with foam or other launch debris, but rather the accidental slippage of ceramic-fiber cloth used to fill the thin gaps between thermal tiles, which some engineers worry could trigger potentially treacherous overheating during re-entry.

Spacewalking意为“太空行走，太空漫步”，即宇宙员步出航天器后在太空中的行走或舱外活动，在上文中作形容词“进行太空行走的”。