Armed with forceps and a makeshift hacksaw, a Discovery astronaut floated from the ship’s airlock today for an unprecedented spacewalk to eliminate a potential source of dangerous overheating during the shuttle’s re-entry.

Discovery’s astronauts are preparing for a high-stakes task that’s never before been attempted: sending a spacewalker beneath the craft to repair filler sticking out from ship’s thermal tile belly.

DISCOVERY commander Eileen Collins said from orbit yesterday that she was surprised that a large piece of foam broke away despite years of work to prevent such shedding in the wake of the Columbia tragedy.

Manager Paul Fairclough has made one change to the England squad to play in the Four Nations tournament in Cork next week.