With a gentle tug of his gloved right hand, Discovery astronaut Stephen Robinson removed two pieces of filler material from the shuttle’s underside in an unprecedented space repair job that drew a big sigh of relief from NASA.

A SPACEWALKING astronaut gently pulled two potentially dangerous strips of protruding filler from Discovery’s tile belly with his gloved hand yesterday, successfully completing an unprecedented emergency repair.

A spacewalking astronaut gently pulled two potentially-dangerous strips of protruding fabric from Discovery’s belly with his gloved hand today, successfully completing an unprecedented emergency repair job.

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.

AS NASA mulled what to do about fabric dangling from Discovery’s belly, two astronauts floated outside yesterday with another key task: to replace a failed spinning wheel that helps to steer the international space station.

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.

DISCOVERY’S astronauts started to inspect their spaceship for launch damage yesterday, delicately operating a 100-foot movable arm with lasers and a camera mounted on its tip.

The Discovery space shuttle was being prepared for blast-off today, with NASA managers confident that last minute hitches would not delay tomorrow’s launch.

A STUNNED world sent words of sorrow to grieving Americans after watching the dramatic break-up of the US space shuttle Columbia in the clear blue skies over Texas.